Chill Out (Bonus Tracks Edition)

Chill Out shows that at age 83, John Lee Hooker remains adamant about trying new things. Not a comeback album in any sense of the word, Chill Out strikes an easy balance between the canonical Hooker style (embodied by “Deep Blue Sea,” “Annie Mae,” “Talkin’ the Blues”) and stylistic change-ups. Hooker’s reading of the Brook Benton song “Kiddio” is the perfect kind of curveball. The song is jauntier and more melodic than Hooker’s standard repertoire, but it’s still rooted in a thumping blues bass line, which allows him to deepen the original while adopting its best characteristics. The Carlos Santana production “Chill Out (Things Gonna Change)” is a slow-burning salsa beat which brings out a whole new flavor in Hooker’s rich baritone. And hidden in the middle of the album is a career performance. “Too Young” is within a long tradition of hushed love songs that Hooker has improvised over the decades, but the arrangement here is so slight, and Hooker’s storytelling so strong, that the song creates a lovelorn tension that would be unbearable if it weren’t so captivating.