“Fiery and explosive... Bonamassa's at his best!”

This is Joe Bonamassa's 12th solo album since his debut at the turn of the millennium, and his longtime producer Kevin Shirley hired two drummers - Anton Fig and Greg Morrow - for the sessions to "ruffle Joe's feathers". The 11 tracks, laid down in five days in Nashville, have the feel of the live environment in which Joe thrives, and the extra rhythmic elements seem to have enabled everyone to relax and leave more space in the arrangements.

The title track exemplifies that approach best, with its quiet-loud dynamic and explosive main riff. Not that this is the only trick up Joe's sleeve - his fans have come to expect the unexpected by now - and he shows his usual effortless versatility and chameleonic guitar personality throughout.

Opener "This Train" is a hurtling up-tempo blues-rocker with a greasy doublestop-laden solo and flourishes of piano; next up, "Mountain Climbing" has the album's stand-out riff, which lands like a Zepp-esque hammer from Joe's Firebird before showcasing Kossoff-esque vibrato on its soaring melodic solo interlude. Then "Drive" swerves into what could actually be a Mark Knopfler composition, punctuated by pent-up, beautifully articulated lead playing, reminiscent in places of Bowie-era SRV.

"No Good Place For The Lonely" keeps the listener on their toes with an unusual glissandoing main riff and a superbly emotive bluesy solo that channels echoes of Jimmy Page, Gary Moore, SRV and Buddy Guy. It's one of Bonamassa's most fiery and expressive solos in years, and is followed by the atmopsheric title track with its doses of delayed theremin and slide.

After this double whammy, the album tails off a little in intensity, though there are some intriguing detours on the way to closing slow-blues workout "What I've Known For A Very Long Time". One is "The Valley Runs Low", a 70s-era Clapton-esque ballad intersecting somewhere between soul and country, which benefits from the addition of lilting harmonies from Mahalia Barnes, Jade McRae and Juanita Tippins, whose talents are sprinkled throughout the album; another is "You Left Me Nothin' But The Bill And The Blues" - a shuffling R&B number studded with wound-up-tight stabs of fiery lead through a stinging 'in-between' Stratty sound.

So "Blues of Desperation" isn't, as the title suggests, a heartbroken, introspective tour of the Delta. Bonamassa's at his best in the record's feisty, at times angry, hard-edged rock mode, though there are plenty of interludes that show the blues-rock kingpin is still determined to push boundaries.