Audio CD review:
Santana - Amigos

Santana - Amigos

Band: Santana Title: Amigos Rating: Release Date: 25 October, 1990 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Dance Sister Dance (Baila Mi Hemana) 2: Take Me With You 3: Let Me 4: Gitano 5: Tell Me Are You Tired 6: Europa (Earth's Cry, Heaven's Smile) 7: Let It Shine

Customer Reviews One of Santana's best after 69-71 period. David Brown returns to play rock solid bass, and add the "Afro" back into Afro-cuban. No album from Santana could top or even match the musical perfection of their 1969-1971 period, but Amigos comes close. Ndugu Chancler does a terrific job of playing drums and timbales at the same time. He's not as good as Michael Shrieve, but he did good nonetheless. The album is really good, and it gets even better after each listen. Dance Sister Dance and Europa are the highlights of the album. Look Up (To See What's Coming Down) is a great song that resembles almost perfectly to the old Santana. Let Me is one of three "funk" flavored songs. This is actually not that bad of a song. It's actually pretty good if you listen to it a few times. Only one song in the whole album is bad, "Tell Me Are you Tired. " This album could definetly do without it. Overall, this album is the damn near closest you can get to the original Santana sound, only Abraxas Pool gets to the same level to the originals. Nevertheless, buy this album. You will not be dissappointed. . One Of Santana's Best? No, But It's OK Amigos is a musical experience that's radically different from the brilliant Welcome album and the very good comeback Supernatural. Santana has always had the amazing ability to change musical direction. Like other Santana albums in the 70s, Amigos combines a variety of musical styles--Latin, jazz fusion, disco, and funk. Unfortunately, the variety of musical styles makes the album challenging to listen to if heard in full. The songs do not mesh well together. While I appreciate the combination of various musical styles in one song, going from Latin-flavored "Gitano" to the funky "Tell Me Are You Tired" makes the album disjointed. In comparison, Welcome's tracks blend well together. In my opinion, only one track truly stands out--"Dance Sister Dance", a classic eight minute epic that builds and builds in tempo and energy. The song is one of my favorites of Santana and thankfully is on some of the group's greatest hits albums. A good second song of the album is "Take Me With You", whose first few seconds sound like background music to an episode of Arrested Development but like Dance Sister Dance is able to transition from Latin rock to a slow samba-like rhythm. Regrettably, most of the other songs on the album are less memorable and certainly not classics. The funky/choral "Let It Shine" and the discoish "Let Me" are repetitive and boring tracks, especially when compared to the brillance of Dance Sister Dance. Overall, the album lacks the genius of Welcome, but is a OK pick for the true Santana fan. Let it shine This is a great disco track that sounds more like Isaac Hayes and Stevie Wonder than Santana. Bought this album for Let it shine, which is always overlooked on compilations. Europa and Dance sister dance are also great. . You can see a complete list of all Santana discography, or go back to the Santana tabs