Windows of Heaven

Jefferson Starship | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 9, 1999)
• Original Release Date: February 9, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sanctuary Records
• ASIN: B00000HZOR
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #115,283 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jefferson Starship Flies Once Again, April 26, 2001

By 

J O'Malley (Long Island NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Windows of Heaven (Audio CD)

This 1999 comeback album from Jefferson Starship took me by surprise. I had heard about its release back in '99 and was fairly skeptical about it. I finally picked up late last year and was very pleasantly surprised after listening to it.

This is very much a new band..not a return to the 1970's and most certainly not the band of the 1980's. Paul Kantner has once again reinvented the Starship into a fresh and energetic band for these new modern times. Joining him is longtime musical comrade Marty Balin, singer Diana Mangano, guitarist Mark "Slick" Aguilar, drummer Prairie Prince, keyboardist T. Lavitz and bassist Jack Casady...yes that Jack Casady. Grace Slick even makes a guest appearence on one song.

The songs themselves are full of energy, in which seven of them are written by Kantner and three by Balin. If I had one word to describe this album...electric. There's a wonderful rush of energy to these songs, and a great sense of freedom to the lyrics. Standout songs include The Light, Borderland, Let Me Fly, Shadowlands and See The Light. Kantner doesn't pull any punches in his songwriting and Balin still sounds terrific. Diana Mangano is a real find. She may not be Grace, but is still a wonderful and expressive singer. Mark Aguilar is a splendid lead guitarist and Prairie Prince (longtime drummer for The Tubes) adds a great kick to this new Starship. Jack Casady is Jack Casady..nuff said.

This was an album that was sorely overlooked upon its release, but if you've seen it and hedged upon getting it...think again..you'll be in for something new here. They also still sound great in concert..just having seen them live for the first time earlier this year. Kudos to Paul Kantner for relaunching the Starship once again. Keep on flying!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice album with some good songs, but not great, April 5, 2001

By 

kireviewer (Sunnyvale, Ca United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Windows of Heaven (Audio CD)

This is a good, but not great album. It is another Jefferson Airplane/Starship reunion album. Basically, the group is Paul Kantner and Marty Balin with several good backup musicians. The album is more like a combination of Kantner and Balin solo material than it is a group effort.

The group features a female singer, Diana Mangano, who does a pretty good Grace Slick imitation. However, she is only a backup singer and doesn't do any leads. The musicians include original Jefferson Airplane bass player Jack Casady, keyboardist T. Lavitz (from Dixie Dregs) and Slick Agular, who plays a firey guitar. The backup band adds a deeper dimension to some songs, but is blurred out in others. Casady is especially interesting on some of the earlier tracks.

The CD starts out very strong, alternating between Kantner and Balin songs. Paul Kantner was one of the most important song writers of the sixties, and he is still fairly potent. The Balin songs were written by Jesse Barish, who wrote most of the best material Balin has sung. But, all of the Kantner have basically the same structure and format and basically say the same thing. After a while, the Kantner songs start sounding alike, and it just gets boring and repititious. The later Balin tracks were written by Balin and are not as good as the earlier Barish tracks.

None of the tracks are bad, and most are pretty good when taken on their own. The problem is that there is not enough variety on this album. The strength of the old Jefferson Airplane/Starship was that there were always at least 4 excellent songwriters/singers in the group. Kantner can't carry a whole album by himself, and the addition of Balin wasn't enough.

Note that the import version of this CD has 3 extra tracks. I haven't heard them, so I don't know if they make the import worth seeking out.

Jefferson Airplane evolved into Jefferson Starhip in the seventies. The group was a Marty Balin creation, but Kantner eventually took over and has been the leader since the late sixties. Balin, Slick and other members would leave and then reappear, but Kantner was always present. In 1985, Kantner finally left Jefferson Starship and took the name with him. The rest of the group (with no original members) continued on as Starship.

In 1989, Jefferson Airplane reunited and released an album entitled Jefferson Airplane. It contained most of the "original" group, Kantner, Balin, Casady, Jorma Kaukenon and Grace Slick. The ablum went nowhere and got bad reviews. It really isn't too much different than Windows of Heaven. The group broke up again.

In 1995, the group reunited again, this time as Jefferson Starship. Only Jorma Kaukenon was missing from the 1989 reunion group. The group toured and released a live album of hits and new material. The album was called Deep Space/Virgin Sky. The greedy, sleazy record company removed the new songs and rereleased the CD, this time calling it Miracles (Live). This reunion group has basically stayed together, only Slick was replaced by Mangana. Shadowlands was originally on Deep Space/Virgin Sky.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jefferson Starship - Reunion Effort Similar To Mid-70's Material, June 5, 2007

By 

Steven Sly (Kalamazoo, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Windows of Heaven (Audio CD)

The saga continues. By 1998 Paul Kantner had long left Jefferson Starship behind. Mickey Thomas and Grace Slick had carried on under the moniker of just Starship. Kantner had gone on to form the KBC band with Marty Balin and Jack Cassidy former Jefferson Starship / Airplane members. At some point Mickey Thomas obtained sole right of the use of the Starship band name, but Kantner still apparently had the rights to use Jefferson Starship. So, to make sure everyone was confused the Mickey Thomas version of Starship was still out touring in 1999 Kantner put this version of Jefferson Starship together for this reunion album. The band features the 3 main members of the KBC band (and original Jefferson Airplane) along with newcomer Diana Mangano on vocals, Slick Agular on guitar, T Lavitz (Dixie Dregs) on keys, and Prarie Prince (The Tubes) on drums. It was a formidable lineup and for the most part they put out an artistically successful album. This album reminds me a lot more of The Starship's early to mid-70's output (i.e. "Red Octopus", "Spitfire", "Dragonfly", "Earth") than it does the later 70's early 80's Mickey Thomas led band. Paul Kantner is fully in charge here writing the majority of the songs with a couple of Marty Balin ballads thrown in as well. I have always been a fan of Kantner's writing but I can understand people who would not like it. He is in prime form here with his patented mix of sci-fi, space / prog, and social / political commentary. Many of the songs feature multiple vocal leads which has been an Airplane / Starship trademark for years. The quality of Balin's songs will probably depend on how much like his writing style. Personally I don't really care for much of what he does and the songs on this album don't do much to change my opinion. Vocalist Diana Mangano has a great voice, but unfortunately is not given enough to do in my opinion. I think that bringing her to the lead more would have been a beneficial move. The bottom line is that if you like the mid-70's version of Jefferson Starship and / or Paul Kantner's solo works you will probably enjoy this reunion effort from the band.