Satch has really come a long way as a musician. I know it’s a weird thing to say about a guy who could quit guitar for 10 years and still probably outplay me even if practiced every day for that long. To say that he is way better than he was back in 1987, for example, is not an insult though. While Joe Satriani has always been amazingly talented he’s somehow managed to get better and better with every effort. Some musicians sit on their legacy and live off of songs they wrote years ago but Joe Satriani does not.
Every track feels as though it was jammed out on the spot and recorded. However, unlike a jam session these are more polished than your mother’s china set and (probably) way cooler. He really lets his music live and breathe. Virtuoso players often over do it. They play too fast or too many notes, and it really takes away from the ability for the album to be enjoyable. Joe doesn’t ever overwhelm the listener with his prodigious technique, when he does show off his chops it’s always at the right time. Usually when a band is named after one person, the music is really stale with the exception of whoever the band is named after. Projects like this tend to sound masturbatory, but Joe Satriani’s band is quite the opposite. They all play together and the camaraderie can be felt.
This is an album I would recommend to anyone who likes instrumental music. Whether you like classical, metal, rock, punk, jazz, I don’t see how anyone can go wrong with this album. Make it yours.
In A Word: Superb
