One of the hallmarks of Jeff Beck"s mercurial career has been a propensity to zig just when you expect him to zag. While Beck-Ola, the Jeff Beck Group"s second album, may not have lived up to the heady expectations fueled by their first album, Truth, it"s hardly a failure. Personal frictions (singer Rod Stewart and bassist Ron Wood left to join the Faces just after the album was released, also nixing a prime showcase at Woodstock) likely broke up the original JBG well before they"d hit their stride. Perhaps influenced by the early success of the similarly formatted, if much heavier-handed, Led Zeppelin, the group seems to have a narrower focus on Beck-Ola, with more emphasis on straight-ahead rock like "Spanish Boots," "Plynth (Water Down the Drain)," "All Shook Up," and a standout, typically inventive Beck reworking of Elvis Presley"s "Jailhouse Rock." The Bard had it right about those sad words: "What could have been." --Jerry McCulley