Customer Reviews

Black Swans & Wormhole Wizards

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

From start to finish this album is really fun to listen to. I hadn't even read anything about the CD...just popped it in and started listening. Right away you know something is different: the keyboards. Once again Joe has changed studio bands bringing in Mike Keneally on keys and Allen Whitman on bass.

Not knowing what to expect after recent releases, (Super Colossal and Professor Satch were very technical and the Chickenfoot project was lame) I was happy once I heard the first note. There is amazing guitar work as one would expect on a Satch album, but it's not overdrive...the disc is full of solid, no BS guitar riffs with several keyboard solos. I think playing in a band (Chickenfoot) may have changed his approach a bit.

My favorite songs are "Premonition" , "Pyrrhic Victoria" , "Two Sides To Every Story" (very jazzy!) and "Wormhole Wizards". There is even a ballad "Littleworth Lane" which I can envision being played with the 10-minute solo live in concert.

Overall this a very impressive effort and my favorite since "Strange Beautiful Music" & "Crystal Planet".

...but in the end, I think he and Joe created a well-polished album that is lush in tone and creative enough to stand apart from some of Joe's recent works.

Production Quality: Again, with Fraser at the helm, I thought I would hear a lot of clipping and dynamic range compression (which appeared gratuitously on "Death Magnetic"), but so far I have yet to detect any. This is a plus, especially given some of the recent works that have succumb to the loudness war who otherwise are above all that (Rush's "Vapor Trails," Porcupine Tree's "Deadwing," etc.). The drum cymbals are a bit loud for my taste, but not overwhelming (like they are with some of Riverside's early recordings). Joe is almost exclusively an Ibanez guitar player, and the strong mid-range of Ibanez guitars resonates throughout. And, as the first reviewer mentioned, KEYBOARDS! I'm so happy to hear a keyboard layered into a Joe CD. He attempted some of this on "Engines of Creation," but it didn't sit right with me due to the electronica-style percussion that accompanied it (although I think he hit a home run with the keyboard layering on "Until We Say Goodbye"). All in all, it sounds "thicker" and more harmonious than the Satchfunkulous album, and cleaner than Super Colossal.

Content/Writing: I think Joe is at a point where he has found a groove, one that makes you want to go back to the CD and hear bits and pieces repeatedly. One thing about this and his last two CDs that made me give four stars instead of the typical Fanboy Five is that while all the songs are "good," there isn't one or two that really stand out to me. For example, when I listen to "The Extremist," I'm astounded by how catchy and unique each individual song is - from the opener "Friends" all the way to the closer "New Blues." On that record, Joe took chances (like the song "Why" and its multi-harmonic overdubs), and also played it safe ("Cryin'"), but created a lot of catchy tunes ("Summer Song," "Rubina's," "War," "The Extremist," etc.). Likewise on Surfing with the Alien and other older albums. I'm not saying this album is bad, I'm just saying that there isn't much that stands out as VERY extraordinary like he made with songs such as "Crush of Love" (possibly his most famous), "Surfing with the Alien," or "Flying in a Blue Dream."

Bottom line: Satch fans will love it, it is better than the previous two releases (for me), and is overall a pleasant listening experience.

Satriani finally has all the pieces needed to once again make a great instrumental rock guitar album! These songs are some of the best, most interesting & varied compositions he's written in years. I think having a strong band backing him up also helps. Mike Keneally is amazingly tasteful in what he chooses to play; anything that has his name attached to it is guaranteed to be quality! Nice bass lines by Alan Whitman too; Joe's songs always seem to groove more when he has someone other than himself on bass. Glad that Joe is back to playing Marshall amps; his tones are great & seem to 'breathe' a little more with added character. It seems his touch is more expressive & dynamic when he's playing Marshall. Every song on here is a highlight, even the bonus tracks you can find elsewhere, so I can't name a favorite, but hearing him venture into Robben Ford territory on Littleworth Lane ranks high just for the fact that it is so unlike what you typically expect from Joe. Highest recommendation & in my opinion one of the best examples of modern instrumental rock guitar playing I've heard in years. Great playing (by everyone), great tone & most of all great SONGS!!!

Amazing album! I just can't stop listening. How many virtuosos like Joe reinvent themselves after almost 3 decades of music and still retain their unmistakable style? Listening to JS' music the last 10 years it's easy to appreciate he's gone into a journey searching for different landscapes of sound, he's become more expressive and his music much richer. He has adopted a new fabric of sound during each of the decades he's played in his illustrious career and I'm thrilled to still feel like the first time I heard his playing : like I've gone through a wormhole to a whole new dimension. May Joe keep delighting us with his strange, beautiful music for many years to come.

Again Joe Satriani has constructed a masterpiece with this Album. Satch is a virtuoso with his melodic riffs and smooth changes. As always, you can feel the music he has written with every song. How can anyone dislike this compilation, another hit in a long line of great tunes by a master of the guitar.

Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards may be the most grounded Satriani cd yet. All the songs are mid tempo to slow and Satch never really cranks things up. The good thing is that all of the songs have some redeeming qualities, which makes for an enjoyable listen. Just not one you'll find yourself bustin' out the air guitar to.

The addition of keyboardist Mike Keneally was a good one, as he adds a nice touch to several tracks and helps make the material feel fresh. While it's hard to really pick the standout tracks on the disc, there are some I personally find appealing. They are "Premonition", "Dream Song", "Pyrrihic Victoria", and "Littleworth Lane", which ranks as one of the better ballads Joe has done.

This is the most consistent Satch disc since the stellar "Crystal Planet", however the lack of true rockers is a bit of a downer. 4/5 stars.

I have been known on many of the Satch's latest works to come down pretty hard, generally 3's are about all I've given.. the problem is "generally" his albums lose steam just after the halfway mark (Professor Satch the absolute worst at this), and the songs tended to run together (Super Colossal), not so here.. in fact the album GROWS all the way until the end and every song is WHOLLY distinct (very important). Premonition is right up there with Cool #9 in the lead-off book, either Dream Song or Light Years Away can give Summer Song a run for the money.. Two Sides and Wormhole Wizards are as good as anything he's ever done. Thankfully (sorry Joe, not being mean, Phone Call worked perfectly) no vocals again! I wonder why no song called Black Swans..? Would have made a fine companion piece.

Personally I would have integrated Heartbeats into the real mix (or swapped it for Wind in the Trees which I find a little nondescript), dropped Solitude and Longing, and put a song more uptempo than anything here (something I feel it needs).. that would have been your 5 star album. Having given my opinion -- I can't stop listening to it, and that is the truest measure of the success of music, isn't it?

Satch has been up and down many roads over the years, and you can never really tell exactly what he's going to do on his next release. I am usually able to hear the soul in most of his albums, even if I'm initially disappointed (see Engines of Creation). Still, his last few albums have left me very disappointed. This is a trend that began with "Strange Beautiful Music", an album that I liked but which felt like a step down after his masterpiece "Crystal Planet". Successive releases have done little to make me feel any better. "Is there Love in Space?" was underwhelming. "Super Colossal" more of the same. "Professor Satchafunkilus, etc." was another step in the wrong direction. My hopes were not high for this one but I was presently surprised. This actually feels like a "step up" for the first time since "Crystal Planet". Is it as good? No. Is it better than anything he's done since? I can unequivocally say YES. It's been spinning non-stop in my car and on my computer ever since release. If you don't like it on first listen, give it a chance. The keyboard flourishes give it an almost prog feel at certain points, which I don't think is a bad thing. Still, if you dislike some of the artistic experiments here, just give it a few listens. After a few spins, those little changes have a way of fading into the background, providing nothing more than a little textural change. Satch's playing steps up, front and center, and he's in great form this time around.

As an avid fan of Satriani since the 80's and owning all his albums, I have to say this has become one of my new faves. After just a listen or two, it was clear to me this is a new sound. The use of Vai's Mike Keneally on keys adds a richness to Joe's sound never present before. And while Joe's playing sounds more like the classic Joe riffs and solos of his early work, the songwriting's riffs & blues/jazz grooves with the keyboards give off a 70's vibe at times; no doubt his latest writing with Chickenfoot gave him some of the retro influences. Nice variance of style from the higher energy pieces like Premonition to the funky wah groove of Dream Song (which he actually dreamed and then wrote/played the next morning) to the more tender delicate sounds of Solitude and nostalgia of his childhood home on Littleworth Lane. Great album through and through!

I can honestly say I felt this was some of Joe's best music in a long time. With him you come to expect the fretboard wizardry. And he certainly delivers, as always. But honestly, as much as I enjoyed his last few albums (Super Colossal & Professor Satchifunkilus), I didn't think he was reaching out as much when it came to interesting song ideas.

Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards though, did just that. He had several standard hard rockers, but also had a number of songs variously different from the normal Satch. They included gospel sounding, jazzy, & Eastern songs and even one where he works with an auto-tuner, which comes out amazingly cool-sounding.

Whichever style he dabbled in on this one though, my favorite part of the whole album was how the whole band really seemed to come together. The bass and drums seemed to flow more than his later releases, similar to how they did on Crystal Planet or his self-titled. Mike Keneally on keys was also a HUGE boost to the sound throughout the whole thing. Particularly on Wormhole Wizards and Wind in the Trees, which was not only arguably the best song on the cd, but also has made a case for possibly my favorite Joe song ever.

Bottom line, whether you love Joe already or have just now heard about him and want to check him out, get this cd IMMEDIATELY. You will not regret it.