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Real Illusions: Reflections

Steve Vai - Real Illusions: Reflections Audio CD

A fair review of the Steve Vai "Real Illusions: Reflections" 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: Real Illusions: Reflections
Rating:

Release Date: 2005-02-22
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Building The Church 2: Dying For Your Love 3: Glorious 4: K'm-Pee-Du-Wee 5: Firewall 6: Freak Show Excess 7: Lotus Feet 8: Yai Yai 9: Midway Creatures 10: I'm Your Secrets 11: Under It All

Brilliant streaks offset
. 3 1/2

Contradictory release finds Vai at is instrumental (and compositional) best, while distractingly dabbling in his most turgid vocal-driven exercises to date, thankfully only making small appearances in an otherwise impressive sonic statement.

Steve Vai's Expanding Out
Excellent. . Excellent. . . Excellent. . . Excellent. . .

Wow, I've never heard Steve create or play such artistic material before. After a single listening, I have to say this is his best work to date. No catering to the musical no-nothings, or to the mindless head-bangers, or to the people who take comfort in familiar sounds.

This is musicians' music, very tastefully and skillfully done, and will no doubt remain one of his major opuses.

Real Illusions Or Just Real Strange?
I've never understood how a musician with as much music theory knowledge as Vai can improvise some of the most unfeeling, go nowhere solos I've ever heard. There isn't a single memorable solo on the entire album. Plus his use of the whammy bar is usually way too much for me, resulting in more noise than anything meaningful. He's got great vibrato and great technique along with his command of the whammy bar, but rarely come together to make a lasting musical statement.

I can appreciate a song for more than just a solo however, and in that sense Vai has written some decent tunes here. Building The Church obviously being the best of the bunch, with everything coming together on that one to make a cohesive whole. Midway creatures is a good listen as well. K M-Pee-Du-We strives to be emotional but instead is completely forgettable. Dying for Your Love and Firewall are strictly filler material. Yai-Yai is obviously amusing to Steve Vai, but I doubt anyone else will get the joke or appreciate the 2 minutes and 36 seconds of space this noise experiment takes up. Freak show excess is Vai noodling with his normal arsenal of technique, which consists of excessive whammy bar usage and legato/tapped runs. It's also forgettable; as Vai doesn't have enough drop your jaw on the ground technique to make an exercise like that memorable. Under it All is pretentious, with one of the most annoying song endings I've heard in a while.

I know Vai really believes in what he's doing, and I give him credit for being true to his vision. That doesn't mean I have to like it. This album leaves me cold, with zero desire to give it repeated spins. The only Steve Vai album thus far that worked from beginning to end was his first, Passion and Warfare. His vision was fully realized on that album, and he doesn't done anything since to come close to equaling that one. Real Illusions included.

Experimentally delicious!
What is interesting is that about four songs have vocals. Alright, that's a weird way of putting it, but Vai is known for his weird musical tendencies, and that's what you get with this. Steve's vocals! And even though singing isn't his forte, he's not bad at it. There's the fun and upbeat "Firewall" and the more tender and intimate "I'm Your Secrets" and a few others. Vai is still his experimental self, going all out with "Freak Show Excess", a more laid-back jam with Jibboom, fun with effects on Yai Yai, and a live, spiritual, cinematic piece called "Lotus Feet".

I like Steve Vai, the experimentalist, and in that vein, I was rewarded when I bought this.

NOT AS BAD AS SOME SAY...
Metallica almost made it: they put out terrible albums such as "St. Let's get one thing straight: Each artist have a peak on its career,one album or series of albums that put them in the top of the lists (personal and professional ones)

Led Zeppelin have a career based on awesome,solid albums. Anger" and destroyed their credibility. Joe Satriani has put out things like "Is there love in Space?" that pale in comparison with other albums.

You can't always be Led Zeppelin. Metallica has "The Black Album". Satch has "Surfing". Truth is that you can't reach some levels of creativity every time. I'm not an artist, but I can understand that they are not divine. They CAN FAIL.

Cut to the chase: This is not "Passion and warfare". Not even "Fire Garden" (another favorite of mine). But it represents a well-known facet of Steve: weirdness. This is his most "Zappesque" album of all time. And this is a compliment. I love Frank Zappa,and Steve is the 1st admitting that his playing is wildly influenced by the moustached genius.

Real Illusions is a "kind" of "conceptual album". Yes, something like "The Wall" or "The lamb lies down on Broadway". But it's more disjointed and surreal,kind of a fever dream. It's a story of a voyager that founds a town in another dimension. Very weird!

The music.

If you like the "regular Steve sound" listen carefully to songs like "Building the church" (a new classic), "Midnight creatures" (acrobatics on the fret), "Km-Pee-Du-Wee" or the wonderful "Lotus Feet" (a song recorded with a orchestra in Holland-Those shows will be available on CD and on DVD soon!)

"I'm your secrets" remind me a lot of "Burning up the mountain",it's like the latter with lyrics. But is a terrific, haunting song. It's melody can elevate your soul almost inmediately.

"Under it all" is the final song, with plenty of references of the storyline. It's a grand finale, I liked it a lot.

Keep in mind that songs like "Glorious" or "Yai Yai"(yes,that's really guitar,it's all about pedals) are WEIRD. But,as some reviewer said before me,"Steve is weird and he'll always be". That's the main trait of his personality. If you don't like it go listen to Green Day and their "down to earth" sound.

In essence,this is not a classic, nor the hideous album some may claim. It's a beautiful album,listen to it,carefully. I repeat, this is not a Green Day record. I love this CD. Give it a try.

Oh,for those who claim that Steve has not a good voice, I'll tell you something about emotion and feeling. Has Ozzy a good voice technically speaking? Or Mike Jagger? Or even Johnny Rotten? You really like those singers, don't you? Listen carefully and try to understand.

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.