Santana

All That I Am

Written by: JM on 13/11/2005 01:33:29

Santana is back with another dose of sparkling latin guitar playing, mixed with singing by various famous artists, as well as the odd one by santana and his band. His albums have come to be predictable, yet this does not make them less enjoyable. This album sees the likes of Michelle Branch, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas and Kirk Hammett of Metallica, just to name a few. Currently the Santana band consists of (other than Carlos Santana himself) Chester Thompson, Benny Rietveld, Dennis Chambers, Andy Vargas, Karl Perazzo, Bill Ortiz, Jeff Cressman, Tommy Anthony and Raul Rekow.

The album is packed with the now very familiar and legendary guitar riffs of santana. No fans will be let down by the album that continues with the same spirit of Santana as in the 2 preceeding platinum winning albums "Shaman" and "Supernatural", yet with another refreshing touch of uniqueness. The album, like its predecessors, has been influenced with the style of the various artists featured. This allows Santana's otherwise streamline and uniform music to develop metamorphic qualities, which allows musical appeal for a wide spectrum of listeners. This album is no different and brings songs like "Hermes", "El Fuego", "Con Santana" and "Da Tu Amor" for the Latin, Spanish speaking community of listeners of the genre Latin-Rock (invented by none other than Santana himself approximately 30 years ago); For the hip-hop community there are songs like "My Man (Feat Big Boi Of Outkast And Mary J. Blige)" and "Cry Baby Cry (Feat. Sean Paul And Joss Stone)", yet both songs can never quite be hip-hop, with the constant guitar riffs from Santana immersing them with a "Rock-N-Roll" feel; Other likely segments is the instrumental track "Trinity (Feat. Kirk Hammett Of Metallica And Robert Randolph)" with its very soothing guitar riffs submerging the background guitar and drums, to create a relaxing, subdued atmosphere. Robert Randolph, judging from his contribution on the guitar, manages to show that he may just be the next generation of super-guitarists, emerging in the footsteps of the masters Carlos Santana and Eric clapton.

This album is a definite "Must-Buy" for any true Santana fan and could very well be a good album to add to this years christmas lists for the rest of the rockfreaks who enjoy this type of music! Just so no one is confused by the scary mention of hip-hop, this is NOT a hip-hop album, so any random hip-hop fans that might have landed here (not sure why!) you might like the tracks, but only if u also like rock. So don't be in doubt, this is a true rock album from start to finish. Its beauty is its appeal to many other genres at the same time, without loosing its identity as a rock album. The 3 recommended songs capture this and show the diversity of the album. I would most definately recommend this to anyone who appreciates the soft-end of the rock spectrum! The album could have achieved an even higher grade if the balance between pure-Santana (Latin-Rock like his early music) and featured songs had been better.

8

Download: Just Feel Better (Feat. Steven Tyler), Con Santana, Cry Baby Cry (Feat. Sean Paul and Joss Stone)
For the fans of: Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones

Release date 01.11.2005
Arista Records

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