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Santana - Amigos Audio CD

A fair review of the Santana "Amigos" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Santana reviews here, or go back to the Santana tabs.

Santana Band: Santana
Title: Amigos
Rating:
Release Date: 2008-04-01
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Dance Sister Dance (Baila Mi Hermana) 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

Amigos
I saw Santana live twice and have just about every album released on Vinyl so now rebuying some of the CD's for my collection and enjoyed listening to Amigos again on CD this time good Album four out of five .


memorable songwriting keeps things going strong for Santana
However, most of the album is quite memorable. This is probably the point where Santana started to run out of musical ideas. But there's a certain predictable nature to the songs that began right here. All of a sudden I can predict what direction Santana is going to take some of these songs.

However, that doesn't mean much of the album is any less memorable from what he was doing a few years before. No way. I can still enjoy this album on the same level as the other ones. His guitar playing was just too darn good to be ignored, that's why.

Also, the album DOES have some classics. The hypnotic "Dance Sister Dance", which to this day still amazes me when the song suddenly changes direction and becomes incredibly spooky during the second half of it. Also "Europa (Earth's Cry Heaven's Smile)" is quite memorable for the emotional guitar playing. These are things that can't be ignored, and SHOULDN'T be ignored. The guy was just a really good guitarist and capable of emotion and beauty any time of day or night. Also, the second song on the album would fit in perfectly with the Caravanserai album and for anyone who loves Santana's guitar soloing and jazzy style, I highly recommend this song.

Amigos should be treated with the same amount of respect as all his previous efforts.


A Righteous Rocker Gets Funky Here
This CD features Santana's personal blues, "Europa", which has been called his equivalent of "Layla", the place where the blues truly became his own. On AMIGOS, guitarist Carlos Santana and his band, thanks to the aid of producer David Rubinson, replaced the Afro-Latin polyrhythms with R&B and Mexican folk music influences, the result being a funkier Santana album and a return to the Top Ten for the band. Carlos Santana's opposition to Indonesia's trumped-up 2005 drug-smuggling conviction of a young Australian tourist makes AMIGOS an essential purchase for both your ears AND your conscience. .


(3.5 stars) A last gasp before the hamster wheel abruptly stopped turning
Obviously the best song is the classic guitar solo "Europa (Earth's Cry Heaven's Smile)", a melodic, gorgeous, tear-jerking guitar solo. This represents the final throes of Santana's creative streak before he all but ran out, and chronologically speaking it's also his last pure studio album that's any good. It takes the ideas presented on "Samba Pa' Ti", waaaay back from Abraxas, and brings them to their logical extent. As usual, it's Santana's playing alone that saves a lot of these songs - his lengthy solo on "Dance Sister Dance" lifts it from a mediocre but harmless MOR tune to something almost spiritual. But please, forget about the crappy "song half", and focus instead on the guitar solo. I do prefer the live version on Moonflower, though, since it shortens the crappy "song half" and removes the synthesized gloss accompanying the solo. The remaining five songs are considerably harder to recommend, though. "Gitano" is enjoyable but overlong salsa in Santana's usual style. "Let Me" is funky, but thin from a compositional standpoint. "Take Me With You" is flashy, but unimpressive. And then there are the two really bad songs. "Tell Me You are Tired" is the kind of thing that Journey may have been doing around the same time, and "Shine it On" (chosen, for inexplicable reasons, as a single - thankfully, it wasn't too big of a hit, peaking out in the lower regions of the Top 100) is disco morass. But the two classics and maybe "Gitano" are enough to bump the rating up. It definitely foreshadows the bad directions Santana would later take his music in, but taken as itself it's pretty good.


Solid and funky
It makes a great driving album. I enjoy this album for it's repetitive nature. Sure, it's not his best stuff. Heck, Carlos is only credited with writing two tracks on the album. But, the tracks are catchy and will have you singing along in no time.


You can see a complete list of all Santana discography, or go back to the Santana tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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