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Elusive Light & Sound 1

Steve Vai - Elusive Light & Sound 1 Audio CD

A fair review of the Steve Vai "Elusive Light & Sound 1" 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 Steve Vai reviews here, or go back to the Steve Vai tabs.

Band: Steve Vai
Title: Elusive Light & Sound 1
Rating:

Release Date: 2002-06-04
Media: Audio CD

Tracks:

Interesting

Of course it is worth the price alone for the music from CROSSROADS, which many today still think is Vai's best single recorded work . This is an interesting collection of Steve Vai's movie related music creations. . . . . . . . . . . kind of his ERUPTION so to speak.

Speaking of CROSSROADS, at first listen I thought my memory was tricking me because songs like BUTLERS BAG sounded different than I remember from the movie.
So I popped in the movie and watched/listened again compared to the versions on this CD.

For the movie, they apparently edited the songs and removed 12 full measures during the first minute of the song around the A9 chord vamp.
On this CD it is a section that involved some right hand tapping --- you can see in the movie Vai starting to play this sequence, but then the video cuts to the classic blue repeating cliche played in the high 17th fret A position.

Actually I think the movie version is better as these extra 12 bars heard here on the CD get a little "out there" playing with the modes and seems to move a bit into some alien world.

I think Vai gave us the full studio recording here as he originally recorded them.

.

Not his biggest masterpiece but it has some incredible tracks
It includes a solo version of "Amazing Grace" and the introduction he did for KISS' "God Gave Rock and Roll to You II" that wasn't used for their album. This album includes his famous duel with Ry Cooder (more like a call and response jam) from the movie Crossroads. It includes the entire score that Steve Vai did for the movie PCU. This album is basically a collection of the stuff he did for movies, plus a cover version of "Celluloid Heroes" by the Kinks. The funny thing about his version is there's less guitar playing in this version than the version that I heard from the Kinks, yet Steve Vai is the one famous for playing guitar. I think it shows that he's more about the big picture than the guitar playing, or he wants people to think that.

Another highlighting part is "Love Blood," which was written when Vai had the idea of doing a movie of Interview With A Vampire, until he found out that a film company already had made it, and had already cast Tom Cruise for the role. He put this on the album because he thought the guitar solo was cool, but I really like the harmony vocals that he did with himself. I really like how compatible his voice is with itself; usually we think of harmony vocals as being done by multiple people, but it works with one person. I think "Weird Al" Yankovic has done a lot of harmony vocals with himself as well.

"The Head Cuttin' Duel" with Ry Cooder is the only reason I bought the album on it's release date, and I think that the price was about forty bucks. Along with that, it includes some stuff that Vai did from the film just before the duel. He commented that there was a deleted scene where he won a duel against a poor soul. I feel that "Eugene's Trick Bag" is definitely a highlighting point. However, I'm not so sure about the part where Jack Butler (Vai's character) loses the duel being on there. It's basically exactly what Eugene plays, but done more poorly and ending with the sound of a guitar being taken off and dropped onto the floor.

I haven't seen the movie, Dudes, yet. However, the stuff Steve Vai did for the film is here, and it sounds really good. It includes a couple of really good solo performances. One of them is a really beautiful version of "Amazing Grace" the other one is more of a slide guitar thing.

The stuff from Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey is more loud. I think "The Reaper" and "The Reaper Rap" are both highlighting points. There good tunes, and they work well.

I haven't seen Encino Man, yet, it's high up on my families list of Blockbuster DVDs to come in the mail. I think that the tunes he did for it are awesome. They're high in energy, they're well written and arranged.

PCU was a crappy movie, in my personal opinion. I think they should have had a crappy guitarist do the score for the film. However, it's good on this album. I like the final track on the album, which is a mix of some of the different cues and stuff from the film, mixed together into one big composition.

In general, I have to mention that this was what really influenced me to switch from being more interested in singing to being more interested in playing guitar. This is a fantastic album, but I will comment that it's not my favorite of his albums, that would be Alive in an Ultra World.

Not sure.
And I wanted atleast one of steve vai's albums to add in my collection of my other famous guitarist's and I was searching in my local barnes and nobles cd store and they only had this album in stock and I didn't want to buy online anyway. I am a person who is obcessed with famous legendary metal guitar players like: yngwie malmsteen (rising force) kai hansen(helloween/gamma ray) michael schenker & uli jon roth (UFO). This cd has 40 tracks of steve vai's crazy solos with classic rock blues and pop from some of the movies he's composed in but most of these tracks are skits and some are like 3 minutes and something seconds long. His solo's are pure solid gold but this album was not meant for new fans like me and I wish I found another album from steve vai, But this album was not really bad at all but it's not one of the best places to start for new fans like me.

Overall I enjoyed this album and I enjoyed steve vai's gifted talent.

Certainly elusive, but worthy?
And you know what? It's actually pretty good in places. Just had to pick this album up after seeing Vai blaze away as the devils own six stringer in Crossroads, an otherwise horrid jumble of a movie.

What holds this release back is the fact that it's just a bunch of utterly unconnected snippets of music, I mean it's one CD and yet it has 40 tracks on it which should give you an idea of the length of many of the pieces. Beyond that there is also the fact that with such short tunes there isn't exactly much foom for development or for the release to hold together as more than the sum of its' parts. Of course if you've actually seen some of these films then you may (or may not) get more out of it depending on your impressions of the films.

On the positive side is the undoubted talent of Mr Vai himself. Having seen him live I can attest to the fact that he can pull all this off in a live setting too which increases the esteem in which I hold him. Of course it's two different things to be a great musician and to be able to write great music. . . . .

This is a neat little grab bag of cool tracks, cameos and curiosities and for the casual rock fan is utterly dispensable. For guitar/shred fans this is probably not a bad buy and for Vai devotees it's probably required listening to fill in the blanks in your collection, especially as some of the tracks here didn't make the soundtrack albums of some of the movies this stuff is from.

Just to close off this review, the flims these tracks are from or inspired by are;

Crossroads, Dudes, Bill & Teds Bogus Journey, Encino Man and PCU.

Decent, But It's Just Not Enough
Steve is an amazing guitar player and it really shows on this disc. This Steve Vai compilation has songs from and inspired by movies includin Encino Man and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. Possibly the best songs are the first two. They are a cover of Celluloid Heroes by the Kinks, and Love Blood. Also his version of Amazing Grace is beautiful and will bring a tear to your eye. Fans of Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson will like this cd.

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