Customer Reviews

Electric Joe Satriani: An Anthology

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

...thus the sad tale that goes with any sort of anthology or "greatest hits" album. If you're looking to get into Joe for the first time, start here. The samples pulled from each of his studio albums is quite good and adequately represent each studio work. The older tracks are indeed remastered here. Joe is my favorite instrumentalist by far, and yet I have a couple of things to say about "Anthology" that are probably not too kind:

1) You're getting basically anything worth having from "Flying in a Blue Dream" (except for maybe "Bells of Lol"), so don't worry about buying it later. It's actually kind of a cheesy album.

2) I was a bit upset that "Circles" from the Surfing with the Alien album didn't make the cut. Joe always plays this one live, and it's one of the high-points of Surfing with the Alien. The other cuts represented from this album are all excellent.

3) The only cut from "Time Machine" is the title track, and yet it's a double-disc set (lots of live & weird studio experimental material). I would have liked to see "All Alone" on the anthology--which I think is Joe's best cut on Time Machine. "The Mighty Turtle Head" is also a great track that didn't make the cut.

4) Joe's 1995 self-titled release only got 2 cuts on Anthology -- "Cool #9" (one of Joe's favorite live openers) and "Down, Down, Down." I don't understand the presence of the latter on this compilation, when songs like "Home," "(You're) My World," and "If" get more radio air time and more attention in guitar magazines and the like. "Down, Down, Down" actually stands out on the 1995 release like a sore thumb; the rest of the album represents a rock-blues fusion thing. This is a very underrepresented album on Anthology.

5) Some great tracks were missing from "Extremist" like "Rubina's Blue Sky Happiness" and "Tears in the Rain." If you were to buy Extremist in addition to Anthology you won't feel robbed because of the overlap (same with Crystal Planet). Granted, few people ever say that "New Blues" is one of their favorite Joe tracks (it's one of my favorites), so you won't expect it in Anthology, but it is worth having, as is the whole album itself.

6) Engines of Creation got just the amount of attention it deserves (it's a weird step for Joe). "Until We Say Goodbye" is probably the only track worth having on the whole album, and it is represented here.

7) "Rubina" and "Not of this Earth" are the only two tracks that amount to anything from Joe's long-ago released "Not of this Earth" album. Good choice here (although I question why they're placed on the CD last).

8) Crystal Planet is almost over-represented, and I'm a bit sad that "House Full of Bullets" and "Up in the Sky" were not here over and against "Ceremony" and "Love Thing." "Raspberry Jam Delta-V" (a phrase used by fighter pilots to describe the effect of intense G-force on the body) and the title track are the high-points of the album, but you'd do yourself well to pick this one up on the side, even though it's somewhat overrepresented here. Again, you won't feel robbed by doing so, as I Crystal Planet, in my opinion, represents Joe's most mature work to date.

All in all, if you're an old Joe fan who wishes to convert cassette tapes to CD, start here. As I said before, you're getting what you need from Flying in a Blue Dream as well as Surfing with the Alien (except for "Circles"), and if one purchases Extremist and Crystal Planet in addition to Anthology you'll basically have everything you need to get up to speed.

I've never been a Satriani fan, but one day I was taking a nap, and out of nowhere something woke me up, and was telling me to go buy a J. Satriani CD...I bought this.

I enjoy various types of music from Aerosmith to Iron Maiden to Rush, and I've always loved great guitarist like Malmsteen and Ray Vaugn, but I just never felt that Satriani would be anything I would enjoy....

I'll tell you, the minute I popped this in, I was blown away. What was that strange thing that woke me up that afternoon telling me to buy this CD???...I still find it creepy.

Anyway, I've only gotten through 15 songs of this 30 track CD {basically because I can't stop listening CD #1 long enough to hear CD #2}, and I'm convinced that J. Satriani is the best guitarist on the planet bar none....

This is simply amazing. My jaw hit the floor. I'm so happy I bought this, and I can't wait to hear everything he has to offer on CD and DVD....

BLOWN AWAY...

I first tried getting into joe satriani a few years back, cause my guitar teacher told me to check him out. So I downloaded surfing with the alien and I thought "cool solos and stuff but i probobly wont listen to it again". A few weeks later my teacher suggested I borrow the cd. So I took it home, and now 2 years later I own almost every cd and i continue to listen non stop. There are tons of shredders out there like yngwie, or micheal angelo, or the tons of meatl players now days. But what seperates satriani the most, is the way he evokes emotion in his playing. For every thousand notes micheal angelo plays you can feel the same power in just one of satch's notes. The way he phrases, his use of dynamics, note coice are all evenly matched with excellent compostions. You could say he is the modonna of guitar virtiousos, the way he continues to reinvent his music, and there is no better way to be introduced to all of these styles then this cd. Some of his songs can not even be catagorized into a genre of music itself. If you dont like music, if you do like music, if you've never heard music, if you consider yourself musical at all buy this cd. I have introduced this cd to my mom, and now everyone at her work wants a copy. All of my friends at school love it, my sisters, everyone. His guitar playing is so vocal you dont need to have words coming out of his mouth to hear what he's saying. You will be hard pressed to find better music than this.

When I consider reviewing anthologies, collections and so on, I generally look for a few points, namely does this serve as a good introduction for a listener (since new listeners gravitate towards collections) and putting aside personal preference, is this representative of what the collection seeks to accomplish? "The Electric Joe Satriani" seeks to cover a 20 year career on 2CDs. It focuses on the studio material, meaning nine albums worth of material and one track on an EP, inmcludes one unreleased piece and one track that was a bonus on a Japanese release.

By and large the collection does a pretty good job with overviewing Satriani's career-- each album is represented, if only by one track, and mostly presented in order of recording. Early hit "Surfin With the Alien" opens the collection, and it dives through most of the really critical material. One thing it does underrepresent is Satriani's stripped down side-- on each album, there always seemed to be one track which was just clean-tone guitar, maybe with a synth backing, this exclusion overlooks an important part of Satriani's legacy. Still, other than that, it does a pretty good job-- especially when approaching the wildly unpopular "Engines of Creation", which is given a fair representation here. Again, I could argue track listings, but barring the exclusion of Satch's quieter side, this is a good overview.

Joe Satriani was one of the first true shredders. A boy from California who began teaching guitar to future metal gods such as Steve Vai, Kirk Hammett, and Alex Skolnick after only playing for one year himself, Satriani's technique has never been in doubt; neither has his versatility or melodicism. Unfortunately, Satch throughout the years has made the common mistake inherent to instrumental artists of his niche to use synthesized backing tracks instead of a full, live, dynamic band. This is rectified in concert; one listen to any of the G3 albums will reaffirm this. But sadly, it coats his music, which is otherwise reasonably pleasurable, with a dull, unoriginal tarnish.

This anthology is a good retrospective of Satch's 20-year career, going from his early breakthrough Surfing With the Alien up to his late-90's Crystal Planet and beyond. The sound throughout is unmistakably Satch; emotive, yet technically flawless, melodies and solos are the name of the game, instead of excessive histrionics common of other 80's guitar heroes. The songs themselves are rather simple, and sound a bit cliche; some would not be out of place on episodes of Pokemon, or other Japanese anime TV series, for that matter. Also, the tracks with vocals are near unbearable. Satch's voice simply isn't that much fun to listen to, and when paired with the majority of the record, the 3 tracks featuring vocals are quite out of place. The lyrics are certainly nothing special, and the vocals seem to bog down the songs from reaching that next level that occurs with his instrumentals. Satch, in other words, sings through his guitar, so there's no need for another voice.

I would compare this with the Yngwie Malmsteen "Collection" in that several of the instrumental tracks are stunning, but the rest are mired in 80's cliche and pomp. Also, although Joe manages better than nearly every other instrumental-based guitarist out there, the countless solos and lightning-fast runs, spread across 2 discs, wears a bit thin by the end of each. Still, this is a good introduction to Satch's style and still an eminently listenable experience. And if you like certain tracks a lot, you can peruse the booklet for the album(s) they are from. (I particularly like Surfing with the Alien and Crystal Planet, and tracks from those albums are among the best on this collection.) 3 stars is not an incredible rating, but it's not a bad rating either; this is a listenable, but not great, record. However, this is likely to dispel some misconceptions about 80's-style hero guitar and show that some musicians use their technique to enhance the music, not the other way around. Satch is one of them, and he displays it on this record.

I LOVE THIS INSTRUMENTAL CD AND THIS IS ROCK AT IT'S FINEST. JOE SATRIANI CAN REALLY PLAY GUITAR AND HE IS ONE OF THE GREATEST GUITAR PLAYERS EVER AFTER JIMI HENDRIX, KIRK HAMMETT, DAVID GILMOUR, && MARK KNOPFLER. GET THIS CD,

Disclaimer: I don't have any of Joe's full albums, so I am only commenting on the content on this anthology.

First off, kudos to EPIC releasing several anthologies from some of the greatest guitar minds of the last couple of decades. It's a great opportunity for some to catch up with the prolific output of some very special talents.

Prior to purchasing these CDs, I had only heard a couple of Joe Satriani's earlier songs when he was a novelty to rock'n'roll radio and I had seen him play in the first G3 tour and was very impressed with his style and sense of lyricism on the guitar. This anthology offers a chance to dig more deeply into Satriani's approach and see how he has evolved over time, and, with a song by song commentary by Joe, a picture of the artist is revealed. The picture is simple and engaging -- this is a man who loves motion of thought and just lets it all spill out of his fingers. His guitar work is often dazzling; highly emotive and technically imposing at the same time. And this seems to be enough for him and many, if not most of his fans.

For my own tastes, Joe's achille's heel is in his lack of imagination regarding percussion. He seems to be perpetually enamoured with his percussion friends who are of the loud and (very) simple school of rock and roll. Juxtaposed to his fluid and creatively rhythmic guitar work, the percussion is frequently and annoyingly ham-handed. At the very least, in the context of Satriani's creativity, I would expect simple druming to be largely subsumed into the overall mix, but in most of the tracks you continuously hear the overbearing whacks of someone trying to be heard but "restrained" at the same time. The only album (as best as I can tell) where he left his percussion friends behind was the "Engines of Creation" which had, for my money, the most creative song structures. Ironically, these songs feature programmed percussion, and while the programming has many repetative loops, it also includes a fair number of subtle and welcome percussion fills... check out the beautiful and scintillating "Clouds Race Across the Sky" that gives any prog rock act a run for the money!

Percussion objections notwithstanding, this anthology shows an astounding range of capabilities from a brilliant guitar mind and is a great listen. So what d'ya say Joe? Do an Adrian Belew for us and sign up a stud rythm section and see what happens. I'm guessing magic of another order!

There isn't a song on this Anthology that isn't good. If you are new to Satriani, then this album is a great place to start. I love this album and listen to it all of the time. I plan on buying any new disc Joe releases.

Wow, The Electric Joe Satriani is such a great cd and it ROCKS! I play this every day, I recently can't get enough of Joe Satriani, Wow this guy can play guitar like CRAZY!! It is also my favorite cd due to instrumental. I love most of these songs. Here are the list of songs on this cd that would be my favorites.
1.Surfing With The Alien-10/10
2.Satch Boogie-10/10
3.Crushing Day-7/10
4.Flying In A Blue Dream-8/10
5.The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing-10/10
6.Big Bad Moon-10/10
7.Friends-10/10
8.The Extremist-10/10
9.Summer Song-9/10
10.Why-11/10---My favorite Joe
11.Cool 9-10/10
DISK2
1.The Crush of Love-4/10
2.Crystal Planet-8/10
3.Rasberry Delta-10/10
4.Not of this Earth-9/10

It would be even more rocking if this cd would include War and Ice 9. But overall this cd is great of a guitar legend, buy this album!

Joe satriani's music is for anyone who's loved the air guitar or humming to a guitar riff or tune. His music is so diverse, it can pump you up, or put you to sleep. His music bares meaning with melodic soothing and symphonic harmony, and can you carry your thoughts and mind to any time frame you desire. His music emcompasses all of your musical influences and inspirations from all times in one song. The album is worth buying to sooth the soul and inspire the heart.