In an electronic age where artists like Alice Deejay who croons ... ’’Who needs guitars anyway’’ in her album ’’Who needs guitars anyway’’ Joe Satriani est un musicien la-bas comparent. As the cover of the album ’’Surfing With The Alien’’ says ... ’’Without a word, Joe Satriani started a loud revolution. And without even opening his mouth, he emerged as the most ’’vocal’’ of all guitarists. A player who shapes notes with a singers articulation and ear for emotional detail.’’
In an industry where boy bands and teeny boppers are making into the limelight by lip synced singles (Ever heard about N’Sync ?? They live up to their name.), short body hugging skirts and mini’s, where the cleavage and nose jobs are important criteria, Joe Satriani is a musician a class apart. Unlike ’’Genie’s in the bottle’s’’ who fizz out of the bottle after a long time like a cracker that shines and burns out after their silicon implants give way, Joe Satriani is a musician for time immemorial. With proteges like Steve Vai and Kirk Hammet (Lead guitarist of Metallica) Joe Satriani has earned his notch in this epoch.
Surfing with the Alien is one of his masterpieces.
The first number ’’ Surfing with the Alien’’ brings out Joe’s fusion of jazz and bluesy kind of rock guitaring with impressive riffs and leads of rapture. Incidentally Joe plays the lead guitars, bass, keyboards, percussion and even does a little bit of drum programming for this Album (Unlike his teeny booper compatriot’s, for whom someone else composes the music, someone else writes the lyrics, someone else plays the instruments and sometimes some are so lazy that someone else sings it for them (Remember Eminem on N’Sync ??))
The second number ’’Ice 9’’ has a good rhythm and towards the end there is a duet between the lead and the rhythm. Intermittently Joe varies the distortion to exhibit his mastery on the fretboard.
’’Always With Me, Always With You’’ has a interesting tapping sequence near to the beginning with slowly breaks out into a soothing lead.
’’Circles’’ Has a mellifluously slow lead which suddenly changes tempo into a very fiery and astoundingly paced tapping where Joe traverses the fretboard with blusey bends and effectively employ’s the whammy with high pitched screams. (This is my personal favorite in the Album).
’’Echo’’ features 2-handed tapping (I still wonder how he does it).
These are the list of songs and duration’s in minutes:
Surfing With the Alien 4:20
Ice 9 4:08
Crushing Day 5:16
Always With Me, Always With You 3:20
Satch Boogie 3:10
Hill of the Skull 1:46
Circles 3:27
Lords of Karma 4:46
Midnight 1:42
Echo 5:38
I cannot pin point and say that a particular number is the best as Joe puts to work his genius, guitaring wizardry and speed in different ways in each number.