Album Review: Beth Hart -- Better Than Home

Hart’s battles with past turmoils and personal demons have always given her a treasure trove of material.

Better Than Home, however, balances Hart’s dichotomous history of ups and downs; the joys are more palpable than on 2012’s Bang Bang Boom Boom and the lows less bottomless than on 2010’s My California, giving her ample opportunity to let that husky voice rip. Hart rejoices on lush, brassy opener Might As Well Smile, laments her relationship with her father on Tell Her You Belong To Me then tempers it with a piano ballad, Mama This One’s For You.