Joe Satriani

"That's not music! There's no singing!" —Some idiot

Not Of This Earth

(1986)
  1. The Snake
  2. Rubina
  3. Memories
  4. Brother John
  5. The Enigmatic
  6. Driving at Night
  7. Hordes of Locusts
  8. New Day
  9. The Headless Horseman

OK album. I don't listen to it much, though I seem to remember that "The Headless Horseman" was pretty good.

Surfing With the Alien

(1987)
  1. Surfing with the Alien
  2. Ice 9
  3. Crushing Day
  4. Always with Me, Always with You
  5. Satch Boogie
  6. Hill of the Skull
  7. Circles
  8. Karma
  9. Midnight
  10. Echo

I like this one more than the previous one. "Ice 9" and "Crushing Day" sound rather similar.

"New Blues" on The Extremist is close, but this album's title track, especially from about the 2:30 mark, is probably about the most fun I can have listening to a Satriani song.

Flying in a Blue Dream

(1989)
  1. Flying in a Blue Dream
  2. The Mystical Potato-Head Groove Thing
  3. Can't Slow Down
  4. Headless
  5. Strange
  6. I Believe
  7. One Big Rush
  8. Big Bad Moon
  9. The Feeling
  10. The Phone Call
  11. A Day at the Beach
  12. Back to Shalla-Bal
  13. Ride
  14. The Forgotten (part I)
  15. The Forgotten (part II)
  16. The Bells of Lal (part I)
  17. The Bells of Lal (part II)
  18. Into the Light

Good album. I like all the instrumentals and a couple of the songs with vocals.

As funny as "The Phone Call" is, I'm glad Satch figured out after just this one album that he shouldn't sing or write words.

The Extremist

(1992)
  1. Friends
  2. The Extremist
  3. War
  4. Cryin'
  5. Rubina's Blue Sky Happiness
  6. Summer Song
  7. Tears in the Rain
  8. Why
  9. Motorcycle Driver
  10. New Blues

Easily my favourite of Joe's. I love all the songs, especially... well, all of them.

Crystal Planet

(1998)
  1. Up in the Sky
  2. House Full of Bullets
  3. Crystal Planet
  4. Love Thing
  5. Trundrumbalind
  6. Lights of Heaven
  7. Raspberry Jam Delta-V
  8. Ceremony
  9. With Jupiter in Mind
  10. Secret Prayer
  11. A Train of Angels
  12. A Piece of Liquid
  13. Psycho Monkey
  14. Time
  15. Z. Z.'s Song

Pretty good. The last couple songs don't quite get it done, but many of the rest do, and very emphatically.

Engines of Creation

(2000)
  1. Devil's Slide
  2. Flavor Crystal 7
  3. Borg Sex
  4. Until We Say Goodbye
  5. Attack
  6. Champagne?
  7. Clouds Race Across the Sky
  8. The Power Cosmic 2000 (I)
  9. The Power Cosmic 2000 (II)
  10. Slow and Easy
  11. Engines of Creation

Yawn. "Devil's Slide", "Borg Sex" (the hell?), and "Champagne?" are the only songs I care about. To be fair, the other three of the first six aren't bad, but from "Clouds" through the middle of the final track is a big snooze-fest.

Back to the CD rack
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Jeff Blank <jfb@mr-happy.com>