Cain
08-23-2004, 07:50 PM
Joe Satriani: Crystal Planet
Band Members
Joe Satriani: guitars, keyboards, harmonica
Stu Hamm: bass
Jeff Campitelli: drums and percussion
Eric Cadieux: keyboards and programming
First off, I'd like to begin this review with a smack in the face for me and an apology for Vlad the Moose, who I completely unneccesarily trashed for liking "Is There Love In Space?" Satriani's most recent release. I was way out of line, and I don't know what on Earth I was thinking writing such a negative post. Hopefully you didn't take a look at this review's author name and said, "What a ****head," because I want you to know that I'm sorry for being a pimple on a horse's *** back there, and it is partly out of penance that I write this review.
Okay, now on to the review. This was my first purchase from Satriani, and I was deeply impressed beyond words by every track on here. Everybody seems to lump Satriani in with the "shredders" movement, probably also caused by his mentorship of Steve Vai, who whether he wanted to admit it or not, was a driving force in the advancement of that whole time period. But the difference is that Satriani had songwriting chops that were comparable in size to his technical ones, and he displays it perhaps better than in any other place on this album. His chops are in top form, and so are his tones...but more on that later. First, here's the album.
Up In the Sky
This is the most kick-*** opening to any album I've ever heard. I'll come out and say it. The riff, the chorus and delay on the electric guitar, it all comes together to make this incredibly textured, brilliant riff. It's just God-like, listening to it. The chorus melody is also terrific. The guitar solo is cool, but operates over a strange chromatic chord progression that is a bit uncatchy, and might have killed the song's considerable 'hit' potential, but hey, it's still cool.
House Full of Bullets
The origin of the song's title--Satch imagining a Martin Scorcese video of him with hundreds of bullets flying at him, ricocheting off walls and never hitting him--may be a little egotistical, but I think Satch has more right than most to stroke his ego, and this song--very little more than a standard I-IV-V blues-rock in F#m--serves mainly as a vehicle to display his awesome chops. His solos are fantastic in this, and he ceases playing them just as they might have become boring. I kinda wish this one had words, though, since it sounds a bit like him "playing with himself:" like he was just recording a backing track over which to solo as opposed to it being a full-band jam on a progression. But the solos are so good it hardly matters.
Crystal Planet
This title track is in my Satch's Top Five. The Eastern-tinged riffs crossed with techno, with a totally amazing hammer-on riff and ending breakdown with double-bassed 16th notes, make for a song I would pick for a high-school dance over any hip-hop junk you could throw at me. This is just a song where everything works.
Love Thing
This is one of Satch's higher-quality ballads. The tone in particular is very rounded and shows some very creative expressive use of the wah's tone-shaping capability. This is where the guitar famously stands in for the vocalist. It's a beautiful song.
Trundrumbalind
Starting with Satch screaming through his pickups, this is a neat and weird track, boasting one of Satriani's most majestic melody tones. The song itself is typical modal interchange stuff over with Satch seamlessly switches scales, and has an outro that's a bit too strange-sounding to justify its length, but it's still solid.
Lights of Heaven
There's a great CD review site on the Net @ geocities.com/mjareviews.html, called Music Junkies Anonymous, and the review for this album, by one Nick Karn, while positive, said that Satch was adding a late-90's production sheen to ideas("and in some places, melodies") that he had already explored better on "Surfing with the Alien." Now, I'm not in total agreement with this, but this song, while boasting a good melody, chord progression, and a blistering solo, does seem to serve as a composite of "Circles" and the melodies and chords from "One Big Rush." This is still a good song, but for die-hard fans this song will strike feelings of deja-vu.
Raspberry Jam Delta-V
This song is described as a techno song by Satch, but it really isn't. What it is is possibly the catchiest guitar solo ever recorded. Seriously, this whole song is just one sprawling guitar solo with no real linear melody to speak of, and the only repeated sections are that flashy Whammy riff at the beginning and end, and that B7sus4 move in the chorus. The solos are so perfectly executed that it's just mind-boggling that he improvised it out of thin air.
Ceremony
This song follows the same basic structures as "Lights of Heaven," but everything is just more badass. In particular the opening riff shows what I'm talking about, although for 7-string guitars they need a bit more metal "oomph" to them: instead they're very compressed and covered in delays. But that's okay, because the solo uses the riff from "Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing" to great effect over the flatVI-VII-I style progression in C#m, resulting in one of my favorite Satch solos of all time. This one just burns, baby.
With Jupiter In Mind
This song is kind of a weaker rewrite of the same peculiar pitch-axis stuff in Trundrumbalind, this time modulating back and forth between E minor and E major. The riff in particular seems like a half-assed exercise for students just starting to learn pitch-axis theory, and it may have well started that way since Satch has been known to use his excercises in songs("The Enigmatic"). At least, that's how it looks written out. The melody ain't that great, and the solos are blistering but are weird. One of the weaker tracks.
Secret Prayer
This song kicks *** in every way. There's not really much that's different from all the other similar songs on this album, but it's very tonally pleasant and the solo is yet another fantastic display of melodic chops.
A Train of Angels
Nick Karn's description of this as a cross between "Summer Song" and "Lights of Heaven" is dead on. It's very catchy and "up" sounding, although Satch's delay-slathered tones are starting to grow a bit tiresome. The second half of the album, truth be told with the exception of "Time", is pretty weak.
A Piece of Liquid
Unlike the earlier "With Jupiter in Mind," this particular piece of modal interchange just rules. It's really better as a melodic exercise for a music mind to dissect than as an actual song, but hey, it works. I really like it.
Psycho Monkey
Okay, THIS track definitely isn't slathered in delay. It's a very ugly song, with guitar tones that make me want to take the amplifiers to the emergency room. It basically sounds like a "Psycho Monkey." That's the long and short of this song.
Time
This is SUCH A GREAT SONG. I'm not even going to say anything about it except for the fact that the ending is amazing, with great guitar tones. Listen to it. It's top notch.
ZZ's song
I honestly thought this was a tribute to ZZ Top, until I heard the song, discovered it was a lullaby, and deduced from the liner notes that ZZ is Satch's kid's name. Still, based on all the ****ing great ballads the guy's written for his wife, you would think he'd be able to repeat more than four chords for three point five minutes in the name of his son. Oh, well. This album kind of played itself out anyway.
This album gets a 4/5, averaged to an 8 on the 10 point scale. The album is incredibly consistent, but signs of decline are shown here. The melodies of most of the minor-key songs in particular sound like they're all derived from each other. There's little in the structure of the songs to differentiate them from one another, too, with "Time" again being the notable exception. Satch also kept too much second-rate material for the second half, but since ZZ Satriani gets writing credit on three of those songs, I don't know, maybe he had a tantrum that wouldn't stop until Daddy Satch put his songs on the album. On the plus side, though, Satch's tones and his chops are in the highest form they've ever been, I think, and the songs are usually very catchy. I can't really listen to the album all the way through, although the songs are nearly all very good. To me, this album would practically function as a "best-of-guitar-spot" list if a guitarist wanted to pick a showcase song to play for his skill. Still, very high quality here. Too bad after Engines of Creation, he would mostly decline. But that's a discussion for another review(and hopefully it's friendlier than the one I started over at Is There Love in Space. Sorry again, Vlad :upset: )
4/5
Band Members
Joe Satriani: guitars, keyboards, harmonica
Stu Hamm: bass
Jeff Campitelli: drums and percussion
Eric Cadieux: keyboards and programming
First off, I'd like to begin this review with a smack in the face for me and an apology for Vlad the Moose, who I completely unneccesarily trashed for liking "Is There Love In Space?" Satriani's most recent release. I was way out of line, and I don't know what on Earth I was thinking writing such a negative post. Hopefully you didn't take a look at this review's author name and said, "What a ****head," because I want you to know that I'm sorry for being a pimple on a horse's *** back there, and it is partly out of penance that I write this review.
Okay, now on to the review. This was my first purchase from Satriani, and I was deeply impressed beyond words by every track on here. Everybody seems to lump Satriani in with the "shredders" movement, probably also caused by his mentorship of Steve Vai, who whether he wanted to admit it or not, was a driving force in the advancement of that whole time period. But the difference is that Satriani had songwriting chops that were comparable in size to his technical ones, and he displays it perhaps better than in any other place on this album. His chops are in top form, and so are his tones...but more on that later. First, here's the album.
Up In the Sky
This is the most kick-*** opening to any album I've ever heard. I'll come out and say it. The riff, the chorus and delay on the electric guitar, it all comes together to make this incredibly textured, brilliant riff. It's just God-like, listening to it. The chorus melody is also terrific. The guitar solo is cool, but operates over a strange chromatic chord progression that is a bit uncatchy, and might have killed the song's considerable 'hit' potential, but hey, it's still cool.
House Full of Bullets
The origin of the song's title--Satch imagining a Martin Scorcese video of him with hundreds of bullets flying at him, ricocheting off walls and never hitting him--may be a little egotistical, but I think Satch has more right than most to stroke his ego, and this song--very little more than a standard I-IV-V blues-rock in F#m--serves mainly as a vehicle to display his awesome chops. His solos are fantastic in this, and he ceases playing them just as they might have become boring. I kinda wish this one had words, though, since it sounds a bit like him "playing with himself:" like he was just recording a backing track over which to solo as opposed to it being a full-band jam on a progression. But the solos are so good it hardly matters.
Crystal Planet
This title track is in my Satch's Top Five. The Eastern-tinged riffs crossed with techno, with a totally amazing hammer-on riff and ending breakdown with double-bassed 16th notes, make for a song I would pick for a high-school dance over any hip-hop junk you could throw at me. This is just a song where everything works.
Love Thing
This is one of Satch's higher-quality ballads. The tone in particular is very rounded and shows some very creative expressive use of the wah's tone-shaping capability. This is where the guitar famously stands in for the vocalist. It's a beautiful song.
Trundrumbalind
Starting with Satch screaming through his pickups, this is a neat and weird track, boasting one of Satriani's most majestic melody tones. The song itself is typical modal interchange stuff over with Satch seamlessly switches scales, and has an outro that's a bit too strange-sounding to justify its length, but it's still solid.
Lights of Heaven
There's a great CD review site on the Net @ geocities.com/mjareviews.html, called Music Junkies Anonymous, and the review for this album, by one Nick Karn, while positive, said that Satch was adding a late-90's production sheen to ideas("and in some places, melodies") that he had already explored better on "Surfing with the Alien." Now, I'm not in total agreement with this, but this song, while boasting a good melody, chord progression, and a blistering solo, does seem to serve as a composite of "Circles" and the melodies and chords from "One Big Rush." This is still a good song, but for die-hard fans this song will strike feelings of deja-vu.
Raspberry Jam Delta-V
This song is described as a techno song by Satch, but it really isn't. What it is is possibly the catchiest guitar solo ever recorded. Seriously, this whole song is just one sprawling guitar solo with no real linear melody to speak of, and the only repeated sections are that flashy Whammy riff at the beginning and end, and that B7sus4 move in the chorus. The solos are so perfectly executed that it's just mind-boggling that he improvised it out of thin air.
Ceremony
This song follows the same basic structures as "Lights of Heaven," but everything is just more badass. In particular the opening riff shows what I'm talking about, although for 7-string guitars they need a bit more metal "oomph" to them: instead they're very compressed and covered in delays. But that's okay, because the solo uses the riff from "Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing" to great effect over the flatVI-VII-I style progression in C#m, resulting in one of my favorite Satch solos of all time. This one just burns, baby.
With Jupiter In Mind
This song is kind of a weaker rewrite of the same peculiar pitch-axis stuff in Trundrumbalind, this time modulating back and forth between E minor and E major. The riff in particular seems like a half-assed exercise for students just starting to learn pitch-axis theory, and it may have well started that way since Satch has been known to use his excercises in songs("The Enigmatic"). At least, that's how it looks written out. The melody ain't that great, and the solos are blistering but are weird. One of the weaker tracks.
Secret Prayer
This song kicks *** in every way. There's not really much that's different from all the other similar songs on this album, but it's very tonally pleasant and the solo is yet another fantastic display of melodic chops.
A Train of Angels
Nick Karn's description of this as a cross between "Summer Song" and "Lights of Heaven" is dead on. It's very catchy and "up" sounding, although Satch's delay-slathered tones are starting to grow a bit tiresome. The second half of the album, truth be told with the exception of "Time", is pretty weak.
A Piece of Liquid
Unlike the earlier "With Jupiter in Mind," this particular piece of modal interchange just rules. It's really better as a melodic exercise for a music mind to dissect than as an actual song, but hey, it works. I really like it.
Psycho Monkey
Okay, THIS track definitely isn't slathered in delay. It's a very ugly song, with guitar tones that make me want to take the amplifiers to the emergency room. It basically sounds like a "Psycho Monkey." That's the long and short of this song.
Time
This is SUCH A GREAT SONG. I'm not even going to say anything about it except for the fact that the ending is amazing, with great guitar tones. Listen to it. It's top notch.
ZZ's song
I honestly thought this was a tribute to ZZ Top, until I heard the song, discovered it was a lullaby, and deduced from the liner notes that ZZ is Satch's kid's name. Still, based on all the ****ing great ballads the guy's written for his wife, you would think he'd be able to repeat more than four chords for three point five minutes in the name of his son. Oh, well. This album kind of played itself out anyway.
This album gets a 4/5, averaged to an 8 on the 10 point scale. The album is incredibly consistent, but signs of decline are shown here. The melodies of most of the minor-key songs in particular sound like they're all derived from each other. There's little in the structure of the songs to differentiate them from one another, too, with "Time" again being the notable exception. Satch also kept too much second-rate material for the second half, but since ZZ Satriani gets writing credit on three of those songs, I don't know, maybe he had a tantrum that wouldn't stop until Daddy Satch put his songs on the album. On the plus side, though, Satch's tones and his chops are in the highest form they've ever been, I think, and the songs are usually very catchy. I can't really listen to the album all the way through, although the songs are nearly all very good. To me, this album would practically function as a "best-of-guitar-spot" list if a guitarist wanted to pick a showcase song to play for his skill. Still, very high quality here. Too bad after Engines of Creation, he would mostly decline. But that's a discussion for another review(and hopefully it's friendlier than the one I started over at Is There Love in Space. Sorry again, Vlad :upset: )
4/5