Customer Reviews

Ceremony - Remixes & Rarities

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There is a lot of buzz about this album in the fan newsgroups - and well deserved. If your typical exposure to Santana is on the radio, then you are going to hear a whole lot of new material. If you are a fanatic, then you've maybe heard some of this before.

For example, the song MANANA seems most like EUROPA with words - and it makes lots of sense that way. I had always wondered if there were words, and these fit the song very well.

TRUTH DON DIE (not a typo, that's the way it is on the album) feels a lot like ADOUMA, but it stands on its own.

LET ME LOVE YOU TONIGHT is also very interesting.

The remixes show their own charm, and if you are a variation collector, you may find some real gold here. Some of it is subtle - if VICTORY IS WON is a remix, then the change is something I can't catch. PRIMAVERA on the other hand, feels very different.

The rest of the album is worth the listen as well.

The Santana website says this is a limited edition of 100,000; if you are interested, get a copy while you can! It's really good!

LIsten. This is a great album for a Santana fan. Everyone keeps saying Shaman was weak, and offering their opinions on what could have made it better, but all it boils down to is Santana's guitar playing. He makes the guitar speak, and that is all tha matters. This album has all of Carlos's talent packaged up and presents it very well. Some people don;t only listen to the vocals, they listen to music. THIS IS MUSIC.

With all the hype that this CD is a limited edition, does not take away the fact that this indeed is a very good disc especially after the weak Shaman. The re-mixes are well done & Carlos scores really high & each track stands seperately from the other. At just under 55mins & 11 tracks, this is definately worth buying.

I just recently purchased the entire Santana collection, both as a group and solo Carlos Santana. I've been a fan of Santana's right from the beginning. Carlos' brilliance shines through on every album, on every song. His guitar playing is one of the best, if not the best. I was reluctant to purchase Ceremony but did because it was part of the collection. What a tragedy it would have been to not purchase this album. This is one fantastic album. The songs on it are brilliant. I put this recording up in with some of my favorites like Festival, Amigos, and Moonflower. This album is truely in the early Santana style. Released in 2003, it shows that Carlos Santana still has what it takes to make that guitar sing from his heart. One song on the album, which I think really makes the album, is Curacion (Sunlight On Water). I can't get enough of this most beautiful masterpiece. This is one of the most beautiful instrumental ballads I've heard in a long time. The sound of the mellow synthesizer, the congas, and Carlos' guitar is very romantic, sensual, and mesmerizing. These three instruments are all that is heard on this song and what a beautiful piece of music it is. Even if Ceremony was rated one star which thankfully it's not, it would be worth having for this song. I highly recommend this album to any and all Carlos Santana fans. If you don't have Ceremony in your collection, you don't know what you're missing.

This album restores my faith in Santana. It is not just for fans and collectors. Rarities does not imply poor sounding tracks, as other artists have done. I could live without the pointless remixes, are they going to remix the original 3 albums next? But the whole thing gets a rare 5/5 from me... especially since I got it new for $4.99.

This album was bought for a poet friend of mine - you can buy his book on Amazon (Surfing the Soul)
He loves this album and so do I!
We both especially love the song Curación (Sunlight on Water). My friend is a Santa Cruz poet surfer with excellent musical taste - this entire album touches the soul!

Santana is Santana and always delivers something interesting and this is not any different great for Santana fans.