Crystal Planet

Joe Satriani

Epic Records, 1998

http://www.satriani.com

REVIEW BY: Alfredo Narvaez

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 05/11/1998

For many, Joe Satriani is the ultimate guitar god. Cool, wondrous - hell, sometimes even magical in the way he comes up with them riffs. Many is the time I have caught myself listening to Satch and thinking, "OK Satch, we know you're a guitar god. Now chill!" Well, chill he did. On his last album - titled my_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250 Joe Satriani amazingly enough. He laid back from his shredding capabilities - which he put through the works on The Extremist - and grooved. Why do I bother to mention all that? Well, listening to Crystal Planet, you can hear the progression from The Extremist to Joe Satriani to this album.

For those people who love Satch's tearing of the guitar, there are tracks like the album-opener, "Up In The Sky," or tracks like "With Jupiter In Mind" and "Psycho Monkey". There's also a lot of the pop flavor that he does - "A Train Of Angels" will remind you of "Summer Song," while he mixes in some great guitar synth on "Raspberry Jam Delta-V". You also get to hear his progression from the self-titled album in "House Full Of Bullets," "Trundumbalind" and "A Piece Of Liquid".

He's also able to take slower, moodier pieces and turn them into nuggets. "ZZ's Song," "Secret Prayer" and "Love Thing" all change the mood of the album so that you get lost in them. Here you appreciate the fullness of Satch's talents as well as the complete and total lack of lyrics. I mean, take "Love Thing". No words could actually compete with the emotion and feeling he puts in there--words would only cheapen the feeling.

Finally, you get a combination of the moods, the progression and the feelings on tracks like "Ceremony," "Time" and the title track. Most people would die for just ten tracks, but in here you get fifteen. While most would consider that as being full-of-themselves, you may be left wanting more!

In a year that has given us so little music to cherish, I strongly urge you to go out and give Crystal Planet a spin. Satch is able to whip emotions, attitude and feelings left and right. So go out, go to your music store and listen. And tell them I sent you.

 

Rating: A

User Rating: Not Yet Rated


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© 1998 Alfredo Narvaez and The Daily Vault. All rights reserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without written permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of Epic Records, and is used for informational purposes only.