Customer Reviews

Beyond Appearances

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Much of this album is attached to memories I have of freshman year, 1985. Maybe it was the cool cover art, the association with the Raiders... who knows. Nevertheless, it made up part of the soundtrack to that part of my life and I love it.

While this is a departure from Carlos' more traditional sound, I feel he did a great job updating his music to the mid-80's. Songs like "Breaking Out," "Brotherhood," and "Spirit" sound as good today as they did when the album was first released. My favorite tracks would have to be "Touchdown Raiders," and "Written in Sand". "Touchdown" is a great driving instrumental powered by Carlos' guitar; while "Written in Sand" is just a fantasic song.

I understand the negative comments - like I said, it is a bit of a departure, but standing on it's own merits, for the time and for the artist - I think it's a great piece of work!

This is a great album if you ask me. Carlos modernized his sound to fit perfectly with 1985 and still retained his trademark sound to mix with it. Breakin' Out, Say It Again, and Written In Sand are excllent songs. There isn't a bad song on this CD. Greg Walker and Alex Litgerwood together are awesome.

Sanatana finally manages to blend the latin percussion sound
he was known for AND acknowledge the 1980's well on great tunes
such as "Breaking Out" and "Say it Again" while "Right Now"
boils a great groove as well."Spirit" and "Brotherhood" both shine with a slight Pater Gabrial/Sting "world-beat" feel and
overall the mix of synthesizers,percussion and vocal hooks and
melodies are the most appropriate used on a Santana album.Despite
it's critics "Beyond Appearances" draws you right in and is totally worth checking out.

What's up world??????!!!!!!! Where are all the Santana Fans???!!!!!! Could it be that we are mostly not computer savvy????!!! Well, this CD has my 2 favorite vocalists from the many that Santana has had throughout his career!! Alex Ligertwood and Gregg Walker. Check out the song titled "Right Now" they sing a duo, WOW, they are SOOOOO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess I'd have to give this one 5 stars because the track "say it again", which another reviewer said was "fairly bad", is probably the one track I have played more than any other in my entire Santana collection.

This album came out in 1985, during Santana's pop period. It consists of 11 songs ranging from 3 to 5 minutes long. It is 44 minutes long. Sound quality is good but not excellent.

Most of the songs are basic pop tunes with Latin percussion and Santana's trademark guitar thrown in. Some songs are fairly bad, like Breaking Our and Say It Again.

This album was produced by Val Garay, who also wrote some of the songs. Garay's big claim to fame was producing Bette Davis Eyes by Kim Carnes. It has the pop sound of mid-eighties, with a lot of overblown synthersizers. (I like synthesizers, but just like everything, there are those who will overdo them and ruin it for everyone).

Beside the overabundance of synthesizers, the sound is a more stripped down rock style. It doesn't have any of the lush, rich or intricate sounds of the early Santana works.

The vocals on this CD are done by Greg Walker who had been with Santana off and on since 1974. He basically replaced Greg Rolle on vocals, when Rolle left to form Journey. I never really liked his vocal style and never thought that if fit well with Santana's music. I think he is especially grating on this CD.

The CD features both the Chester Thompsons. Chester C Thompson is a drummer who has also been in Genesis, when Phil Collins moved to doing moslty vocals. He also played with Frank Zappa (singing BeBop Tango) and toured in Steve Hackett's all star band. Chester D Thompson is a keyboard player who has been with Tower of Power. David Sancious is also on Keyboards.

There are some good tracks on this CD. Brotherhood is a nice boisterous African jaunt and Written in Sand is soulful blues tune.

After releasing the first three classic albums in the late sixties, early seventies, Santana started to drift towards jazz. The group got really heavy into jazz fusion by the fifth album (Welcome). Eventually, Santana returned to the classic sound with Amigos, but with a little pop thrown in. In 1977, with Festival, the group went pop and stayed throughout the eighties. Santana put out a number of bad albums in that time period (I think that Havana Moon was the only one to be somewhat good).

During the eighties, most of Santana's hits were covers over other songs, like Stormy, and Well Alright. But, come to think of it, Santana has always done well with covers. The band's first big hit was Black Magic Woman, which was from Fleetwood Mac and Oye Como Va, which was a popular song in the Latin community.

Santana made a serious come back in 1990 with Spirits Dancing in the Flesh, and again in 1999 with Supernatural.

When I stumbled upon Beyond Appearances on a lazy afternoon on the discount rack at Circuit City, I had no idea the power that was about to grace my ears. With the first listen I was transformed into a world of absolute awe. Carlos takes the listener on a trip straight through the 80's and really captures all the great musical influences of that wonderful generation of music. The vocals are fantastic with hints of Sting, Michael Mcdonald, and even Steve Winwood. I recommend this disc to anyone trying to enjoy an afternoon entertaining friends with great music. The best way to sum this album up is to thank the musical brilliance of Carlos Santana!

This is not a great Santana cd. However, after 15 years, I still enjoy listening to it. Basically it's a soul album with a terriffic upbeat mood. Written in Sand, Who Loves You, I'm the One Who Loves You, these are good soul tunes. When I was dating my wife these songs always worked well to set a good romantic mood. I do find it difficult to listen to the whole cd, but when I pop it in my player with a couple of other Santana cds from the 80s and program my favorite tunes...watch out, it's party time.

I have to disagree with the previous comment. This is a fine, fine album, an overlooked gem. If you enjoy the Santana band sound of the late 70s and early 80s, this 1985 release is to my mind among the very best of the bunch.

Both Alex Ligertwood and Greg Walker are onhand for vocals, which I find to be a very appealing mixture. Musically, this album is very solid, with some songs in a more mainstream vein while several others are hot, rhythmic, and very exciting; in short, what Santana does best!

Highlights of this album are three songs which at the time all got substantial radio play in the San Francisco area: the rockin' "Say It Again," the bluesy "Who Loves You," and the sensuous "Written In Sand". The latter title is an overlooked masterpiece of the Santana catalogue, a romantic, sensual feast for the ears.

The rest of the album is also very good, particularly the closing instrumental "Touchdown Raiders". This album is well worth checking out if you enjoy this period of Santana music.

This review is only for those interested in sound quality. For reviews regarding content, please see other posts in this forum, or go to All Music Guide (dot com). Also, due to Amazon's unfortunate programming policy of cross-pollinating reviews across different versions of the same CD title, this review may appear elsewhere.

A newly DSD-remastered 2010 set of eight latter Santana catalog albums have been released by Sony Japan in mini-sleeve format. There is no bonus material included on any of these editions.

All of these are now the best audio versions of each title available worldwide. A possible exception to this would be the 2009 Friday Music remaster of Marathon, which I have not heard. However, I have found that Sony's DSD processing is usually superior to other remastering schemes.

The 2010 DSD's are:

Inner Secrets
Marathon
Zebop!
Shango
Beyond Appearances
Freedom
Spirits Dancing In The Flesh
Viva!

In relation to the mini-sleeves, while seven of these titles originally had just single-pocket LP covers, it should be noted that Viva! has been restored to its tri-fold original cover. It is the jewel of the set.

WHAT IS A JAPAN "MINI-LP-SLEEVE" CD?

Have you ever lamented the loss of one of the 20th Century's great art forms, the 12" vinyl LP jacket? Then "mini-LP-sleeve" CD's may be for you.

Mini-sleeve CDs are manufactured in Japan under license. The disc is packaged inside a 135MM X 135MM cardboard precision-miniature replica of the original classic vinyl-LP album. Also, anything contained in the original LP, such as gatefolds, booklets, lyric sheets, posters, printed LP sleeves, stickers, embosses, special LP cover paper/inks/textures and/or die cuts, are precisely replicated and included. An English-language lyric sheet is always included, even if the original LP did not have printed lyrics.

Then, there's the sonic quality: Often (but not always), mini-sleeves have dedicated remastering (20-Bit, 24-Bit, DSD, K2/K2HD, and/or HDCD), and can often (but not always) be superior to the audio on the same title anywhere else in the world. There also may be bonus tracks unavailable elsewhere.

Each Japan mini-sleeve has an "obi" ("oh-bee"), a removable Japan-language promotional strip. The obi lists the Japan street date of that particular release, the catalog number, the mastering info, and often the original album's release date. Bonus tracks are only listed on the obi, maintaining the integrity of the original LP artwork. The obi's are collectable, and should not be discarded.

All mini-sleeve releases are limited edition, but re-pressings/re-issues are becoming more common (again, not always). The enthusiasm of mini-sleeve collecting must be tempered, however, with avoiding fake mini-sleeves manufactured in Russia and distributed throughout the world, primarily on eBay. They are inferior in quality, worthless in collectable value, a total waste of money, and should be avoided at all costs.