Album Review : Super Colossal by Joe Satriani

Twenty years plus since he first started getting the attention he truly deserves, Joe Satriani, the world's greatest guitar player, has come out with another great album of instrumentals titled "Super Colossal". 1987 saw the release of "Surfing With The Alien" and with that, Satch was established in guitar & rock music history as one of the true greats, preferring to let his music do his talking for him. The album follows in the footsteps of his 2 recent albums, 2002's "Strange Beatiful Music" & 2004's "Is There Love In Space", footstomping numbers and thoughtful more melodious instrumentals that you can play in any enviornment and anyone can enjoy (except rappers who are idiots)! The wonderful CD artwork compliments the songs & overall attitute of the 13 tracks on the album, which starts off with the title track & first single.

"Cool New Way" is just that - a cool new way to make your ears perk up and pay attention with a cool vibe & melody. "Made of Tears" follows in the footsteps of an earlier favourite, "The Crush of Love" in guitar tone and melody, and will surely be a live fan choice. "One Robot's Dream" is another track that mines that "cool" vibe, this time with a space age feel, perhaps reminicent of "Is There Love In Space" or his "Engines Of Creation" album released in 2000. "Redshift Riders" is likely to be the song that guitar shredders will hail as the album anthem. The intro gives way to a thick, snarling rhythm track which allows Satriani to run through a few screaming solos and I can imagine hundreds of thousands of guitarists squinting in concentration as they try to understand just how it is done. A few more times of playing this track and they will pick up their own guitars and belt out their versions. Some of the hottest licks on the disc can be found in the final 30 seconds of "Redshift Riders." "Ten Words" and "The Meaning of Love" are the best of the more melodious tracks on the album, which does not (sadly) feature a ballad in the vien of "Crying", "Alone" or "Always With me, Always With You". Still "Ten Words" is surely a great tender song. The closing track, "Crowd Chants" is a rowdy rocker and will be great in concert. Recorded with 30 of his friends & musicians in Vancouver, the chants & voices adds another dimension to the already rambunctious fast track which struts like a stallion on steriods and is great way to close out the album. Go and buy it idiots, instead of reading this!



Song for the day - "Crowd Chants" - JOE SATRIANI