Vernon Reid 'Hoodoo Telemetry' album review: Living Colours guitarist invites us into his kalidoscopic mind with his first solo album in two decades

After more than two decades of solo silence, Vernon Reid of Living Colour returns—uncompromising, uncategorisable, and completely on fire. His new solo album, 'Hoodoo Telemetry', is a genre-defying joyride: chaotic, brain-scrambling, and emotionally raw. It doesn’t just explore our humanity—it reflects it right back at us.

Over five decades, Reid has relentlessly pushed musical boundaries—spanning jazz, metal, punk, funk, hip-hop, electronica, and beyond. He’s collaborated with everyone from Mick Jagger to Public Enemy, and like the British weather, he remains gloriously unpredictable. 'Hoodoo Telemetry' follows that same mercurial path, inspired in part by one of Reid’s musical icons—another shapeshifter: Prince. His spirit pulses through the record, especially on the simmering lead single “The Haunting,” but this is very much an album forged from Reid's kaleidoscopic mind

His guitar work across the album is fierce and immediate—not just technically dazzling, but driven by a deeper urgency. There’s a fire in every riff, a rawness in every solo, as if he’s not just playing notes but sending out a call to reconnect—with each other, with the natural world, with the core of what makes us human.

The album opens with “Door of No Return,” a mind-melting assault that jars you to the core. But stay with it—the reward comes in the form of a stunning cover of Edgar Winter’s 'Dying to Live,' featuring Living Colour frontman Corey Glover. When this gorgeous, sincere cover arrives, it hits you with an overwhelming surge of emotion. It's a perfectly placed deep cut, designed to pull the rug from under you, and it's masterfully executed.

Just when you think you’ve found your footing, Reid pulls the rug out again with the brass-heavy 'Bronx Paradox', which slams you straight into a wild tribute to DJ Logic and the birth of hip-hop.

Part retrospective, part reinvention, Hoodoo Telemetry is a shapeshifting journey through sound, spirit, and self. And as always, Vernon Reid doesn’t just want to bend genres—he wants to wake us up - so you better stand up straight and get listening!