Ralphy's C.D. Reviews Ralphy's C.D. Reviews
Review date 29-03-2000: Santana - C.D. Supernatural
Although at its origin in the mid 60's Santana was the name of a fixed band, in its recording life span of over 3 decades it gradually changed in a band with guitarist Carlos Santana and a bunch of hired musicians. Therefore if we talk about Santana nowadays we usually mean all musical efforts in which Carlos Santana was included. The succes of Santana started at the legendary Woodstock festival of 1969. Their first album wasn't even released yet at that time, but Santana itself became a legend on its own and I think if you love music it has been almost impossible not to come in contact with the music of Carlos Santana and his buddies during especially the 70's and 80's. My contacts come from one of those many 'best of/greatest hits'-albums on which you immediately hear the distinctive Santana-sound, which include blues and latin influences and is typically filled with amazing guitar solo's and a lot of percussion. One other memory I will always connect with Santana is his instrumental masterpiece "Europa". This song (perhaps his best) used to be the closing song in the disco I used to visit regularly when I started to go out. Around 2 hours past midnight you heard that song and you knew the evening ended (or at least you had to leave), but first you listened to "Europa". Ah, memories, the disco has been closed for over 10 years already, where does the time go. Among the other numerous hits of Santana were beauties like "Evil ways" (the first hit back in 1970), "Black magic woman" (originally by Fleetwood Mac), "She's not there" (originally by The Zombies), Samba pa ti (another one of many instrumentals), "Say it again"(a typical 80's hit) and "The Healer" (a collaboration with blues legend John Lee Hooker).
Any comments you might have on these reviews
Visit my message board: Ralphy's Music and Stuff Forum
"Supernatural" was released in the summer of 1999 and although I heard a lot of positive things about it I wasn't that mad about Santana that I would run to the stores to buy out at once. Since then I heard the fabulous first single "Smooth" sung and written by Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20 and saw the album/Santana get 8 grammies, equalling the record of Michael Jackson's thriller, so I decided to find out what all the excitement was about. Well the purchase of "Supernatural" has been no waste of money. The album with 13 songs and the obligatory hidden track at the end is a mix of styles, highly influenced by the collaborations with many guest stars, but still undeniably has that sound that is so distinctive for Santana. The guitar playing of Santana often seems like another voice on the songs for example in "Love of my life" it's almost like Carlos's guitar is singing a duet with Dave Matthews. The same is true for both singles , the before mentioned "Smooth" and "Maria Maria", a sort of jam with Wyclef Jean, currently at number 1 in Ralphy's Dutch (MP3) Top Ten. (One thing that bothers me about Wyclef is that he always has to say something about refugee camp in the background of a song. Didn't he do the same on Whitney Houston's "My love is your love"? What's that mumbling in the background of a song good for anyway? It has also become a trend to name the artist somewhere in the song. This happens on at least 2 songs on "Supernatural". Do they really need to plug themselves in this way?). This 'vocal' quality of Santana's guitar virtuousity is probably the reason he has become and remained so succesful as a guitar player without real vocal qualities. On the last track of the CD Carlos plays together with another master of the guitar Eric Clapton on the captivating "The calling". Other collaborations include "Put your lights on", written and sung great by Everlast and "Do you like the way", sung by Cee-Lo and including a rap of Lauryn Hill, which I could have done without, but that's probably because I'm not a big fan of Hill or rap in general. The lyrics of "Supernatural" are (almost equally divided) in 2 languages. Six songs in English, 5 in Spanish (although "Africa Bamba" could also be in Portugese, don't know about that) and 2 instrumentals (except for a few chants on "The calling"). I don't have such a knowledge of Spanish that I could give any kind of decent comment on those lyrics and regarding to the English lyrics I can say that they are very diverse (sure, different people wrote them) and not too deep. The other (totally) instrumental song "El Farol" is another reminder of Santana's best instrumentals of the past and can very easily fit into that category.
What is your opinion about the CD's I reviewed? Vote for your favorite CD in this booth! You can only vote once a day.
Ralphy's CD Review Voting Booth
The weakest collaboration on "Supernatural" to me is "Wishing it was" with Eagle-Eye Cherry, a song about pessimism. Better is the collaboration with Mexican rockers Maná on "Corazon espinado". Not mentioned on the cover are other accomplished guest musicians like KC Porter, involved in both "Migra" and "Primavera" and Chester Thompson (former live-drummer of a.o. Genesis) who co-wrote "The Calling" and plays drums throughout most of the album. I haven't mentioned one track yet, the opener "(Da le) Yaleo". To me it is the best Latin-language song on "Supernatural" and it features the jamming percussion that Santana is known for. All in all it is indeed a smashing come-back for Santana (Was he ever really gone?) and it can stand the comparison with his best work and therefore I rate "Supernatural" with an 8.0.
Back to Ralphy's 
Cool Music Site
| |