Satriani - The Elephants of Mars

viz

Is quite good, especially side 2.

boogieman

“Quite good” sounds like damning with faint praise, so is it good or not?

I like Joe, but I don’t think he’s done anything really different or that’s made me want to listen to a whole album since Engines of Creation. I had Amazon music unlimited for a while and listened to some of his more recent tracks. Although he’s obviously an incredibly gifted guitarist none of his material really jumped out. I feel the same about the likes of Steve Vai, Andy Timmons and Guthrie Govan too. If you’re going to do an album of purely instrumental guitar tunes, they need to be exceptional or memorable, things like For the love of God, Flying in a blue dream. 

M1ck

viz said:

Is quite good, especially side 2.

I’m just wondering if there’s something cryptic about this comment “especially side 2” or did you buy the vinyl or a cassette? Either of which would of course have two sides!
I’ve liked Satch since ‘not of this earth’ one of my first cds! and I still have it! I think I’m more a fan of his albums these days than wanting to see him live, last couple of times I’ve seen him I was quite underwhelmed, but that could have been for any number of reasons, he could just have had a bad day, sound engineer may have had one too or maybe the venue just lacked atmosphere. No doubting his talent (for me) as a guitarist though. 

viz

Awesome points chaps. 

“Quite good” because I was expecting it to be quite samey compared to his previous late releases, but it’s better than I expected. Quite a bit better. 

I should have been clearer, it’s double vinyl, and side 2, and actually side 4 too, are great. They’re really interesting, there are plenty of unusual ideas in them. 

The whole album has a gentle groove throughout and quite soft tones.

axisus

Engines of Creation was definitely his high point creatively. I consider myself a Satch fan, but I only have the first 11 albums, not the last 7. You basically know what you are getting with an album and life is too short plus I have so much other music to buy.

What I do still like is his live albums. They are brilliant, so full of energy.

Satch's worst point - naming songs. He wrote one of the greatest guitar instrumentals ever, then gave it the clunky, over-wordy title of Always with me, always with you. His albums are littered with terrible song titles, and 'Elephants of Mars' is equally dumb sounding!

There is something that Joe could do to get me interested in an album - Go somewhere completely different again, like EoC did. His music is too safe for me. Having said that, it is insane how many instrumental songs he has written. Quite incredible.

M1ck

viz said:

I should have been clearer, it’s double vinyl, and side 2, and actually side 4 too, are great. They’re really interesting, there are plenty of unusual ideas in them. 

Now the side 2 (and 4) make sense! 

axisus said:

What I do still like is his live albums. They are brilliant, so full of energy.

So do I which is why I found the last couple of gigs I attended disappointing
 

axisus

M1ck said:

viz said:

I should have been clearer, it’s double vinyl, and side 2, and actually side 4 too, are great. They’re really interesting, there are plenty of unusual ideas in them. 

Now the side 2 (and 4) make sense! 

axisus said:

What I do still like is his live albums. They are brilliant, so full of energy.

So do I which is why I found the last couple of gigs I attended disappointing
 

I've seen him live 5 times, but all many years ago (first three with hair!). He was always very good to be honest.

Greatape

Not a fan since the early nineties, but I saw the FIABD tour at the Birmingham Hummingbird, and it had a profound impact. So I've got to thank him for that. 

Philly_Q

M1ck said:

I’ve liked Satch since ‘not of this earth’ one of my first cds! and I still have it! 

Strangely enough it was the first CD I ever bought.  Many thousands since...

I haven't listened to any Satriani albums for years.  I bought them all up to the "Joe Satriani" album (the last one where he had hair!), then I saw him on the G3 tour where he was doing the Crystal Planet material.  All fine, but I just lost interest after that.

I guess I'm not really into instrumental music nowadays, unless it's something which is more of a trippy/spacey thing like My Sleeping Karma or Earthless.

M1ck

axisus said:

I've seen him live 5 times, but all many years ago (first three with hair!). He was always very good to be honest.

Philly_Q said:

Strangely enough it was the first CD I ever bought.  Many thousands since...

Not sure I’ve seen him 5 times definitely 4 though, ‘Flying In A Blue Dream’ and ‘Extremist’ tours when he had hair and at least twice with none, I think one of those was ‘Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards’ but I can’t be sure, and one time with Paul Gilbert - that night they were both underwhelming IMO, he was definitely better in the early days, with the likes of Jonathan Mover and Stu Hamm

I still like his music but much of it does seem samey to me these days, maybe my taste in music is changing. 

Not Of This Earth seems very dated now but at the time there was little to compare it to.

viz said:

Is quite good, especially side 2.

I listened to ‘The Elephants Of Mars’ on my way to and from work today and thought it was ok/quite good, instantly recognizable as JS, sometimes though, especially if I’m busy doing something else, albums take a couple of whirls for me to get into them and really appreciate them, so I’ve not given up on it.

scrumhalf

I look forward to listening to it.

I saw him at the Hammy Odeon when I was in the minority that didn't bring binoculars.