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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding instrumental rock, September 18, 2000
I challenge anyone to release a more accessible instrumental rock album than Joe Satriani's "Surfing With the Alien." I don't play guitar myself, but that is hardly an impediment to enjoying his music...and that's probably the best thing about Joe -- you don't need to be a musician yourself to love his songs.Surfing With the Alien was Joe's first successful record, and after listening to it just once you'll understand why. Joe eschews needless self-indulgence like most 'guitar heroes' and just plays rocking songs with interesting melodies. My favorite songs are "Crushing Day" -- an exhilarating song with mind-bending solos and some good hooks -- and "Echo" -- a great track that flows naturally and beautifully. Every other song here is excellent, from the epic and orchestral-sounding "Hill of the Skull" to the pretty ballad "Always With Me; Always With You." I highly recommend this album to guitar players and rock fans alike.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Album, Great Guitar Artistry, Great Teaching Tool, Essential Listening!, March 12, 2006
This album showcases a brilliant musician at the height of his powers and is probably his best album; at the very least, it's my favourite work of his as it manages to show the versatility and technical proficiency of Joe in 10 fabulous tracks.
From the speedy pyrotechnics of the first track "Surfing With the Alien" replete with everything from wah-pedal to wild tremolo bar vibrato to two-handed tapping to the mellow, sentimental "Always With Me, Always With You" which is also replete with vibrato and two-handed tapping but in a more subdued and always accessible manner.
Taking a page from another guitar great, Jeff Beck, Joe has his own answer to "Jeff's Boogie", the original standard for flash guitar playing, with "Satch Boogie", raising the bar even higher for what makes a brilliant guitar boogie-woogie showcase. Where Eddie Van Halen does acoustic guitar tapping on "Spanish Fly" from "Van Halen II", Joe does his version on "Midnight" to great effect.
What I like about Joe as well is his great humility and generosity. He doesn't keep what he knows to himself like a trade secret but he openly shares his knowledge and is a great guitar teacher. He's had Steve Vai and Kirk Hammett among his long list of admirers and students and he continues to inspire guitar enthusiasts and guitarists like myself after all these years.
This version of the album has been very well remastered and the sound quality is hence very good. Very highly recommended if you like rock guitar instrumental music and essential listening if you are an aspiring rock guitarist.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb., October 25, 2005
A night-and-day improvement of his debut album and probably the best instrumental rock album of its era, "Surfing With the Alien" is the Joe Satriani album that people are most likely to have, and with good reason-- the title track came as close to being a hit single as any instrumental piece has in ages and the album is just stunning.
Satriani, backed by a core of percussionists (Bongo Bob Smith, Jeff Campitelli and john Cuniberti) put together an album of fantastic performances-- his melodies are catchy and exciting, the arrangements are fully realized and detailed, and his playing is fierce and astonishing. But more to the point, it avoids falling into the trap of sounding dated. The material covers a lot of ground, from the explosive and exciting (the classic title track, the chugging "Crushing Day" and the funky "Satch Boogie") to moody and evocative ("Echo") to sentimental and lyrical ("Always With Me, Always With You", featuring perhaps the best playing Satriani has ever done. Along the way, Satriani also throws in an overtly prog piece (the symphonic "Hill of the Skull", which ends in less than two minutes, long before it gets annoying) and a cleantone performance that will have anyone who's ever picked up a guitar staring blankly ahead ("Midnight").
Invariably, this is a fine place to begin exploring Satriani's music, and certainly it may be his best album. Highly recommended.
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