The Elephants on Mars seems like one thing Joe Satriani might need seen 35 years in the past when he was out Surfing With the Alien. And relaxation assured the rock-guitar virtuoso’s nineteenth album is one other sonic travelogue, albeit one which’s a bit of extra Earthbound and knowledgeable by the circumstances of the previous couple of years.
Like so many different recordings surfacing nowadays, The Elephants on Mars was a pandemic challenge for Satriani and his mates, working remotely from California and Australia and benefiting from enforced day off to spend extra time pondering and creating. The 14 tracks right here – all instrumentals apart from “By way of a Mom’s Day Darkly,” which options spoken-word passages by cowriter Ned Evett – determinedly push the sonic envelope of each construction and tone, confirming that the time was under no circumstances wasted.
Satriani begins us off in “Sahara,” putting a delicate however current Center Jap taste that helps his biting melodies. His taking part in is lyrical and severe in its playfulness, whereas the association has an ethereal, cinematic high quality that makes every word really feel like a skip alongside the sands. It is an invigorating begin to a journey that then lifts off with the title observe, traipsing into each digital and symphonic terrains pushed by drummer Kenny Aronoff’s trademark whomp and Satriani’s dancing guitar line. And that is simply the place issues start.
Two years after his final album, Satriani remains to be shapeshifting and attempting on totally different approaches all through The Elephants on Mars. “Faceless” channels the likes of Carlos Santana and Yes‘ Steve Howe, and the great “Blue Foot Groovy” places Satriani south of the Mason-Dixon Line into – take your choose – Muscle Shoals, Memphis or Tulsa with a few of his funkiest and most natural taking part in to this point. “Stress and Launch” goes full-on prog, whereas “Crusing the Seas of Ganymede” gives a Primus-y fusion that has Satriani’s axe wailing like an deserted pet by the tip. “Doorways of Notion” returns to the Jap motif, “E 104th St NYC 1973” delivers a Climate Report that is dynamic and, whereas we by no means actually tire of his guitar, Satriani throws some counterpoint synthesizers into “Pumpin'” and electrical piano ring into “Night time Scene.”
The one track that proves problematic is “Dance of the Spores,” the album’s longest observe at 6.20 and a little bit of a large number whose circus-flavored interludes are redeemed solely barely by a specific fierce Satriani solo. “Desolation” closes the album on a delicate, drum-less and barely mournful word, as if Satriani’s surveying the wake of his jetstream over the earlier 13 tracks. He ought to be happy with what he sees, after all, and we should always really feel the identical manner about what we hear from this trusted and veteran information of the guitarsphere.
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UCR takes a chronological take a look at the 100 greatest rock albums of the ’80s.
