Album Review: Joe Satriani - Shapeshifting
Reviewed by Carl Black
Joe Satriani is one of the most talented guitarist you will ever hear, that should never be doubted. But on paper a virtuoso solo, one man show, can be a bit hard to stomach. Don’t get me wrong, there are more solos on Shapeshifting, Satriani’s seventeenth album as a solo artist, than Yngwie Malmsteen after a bag full of whizz and more fretboard masturbation than a public school dorm on lockdown. But as Kenny Everett used to say “it’s all done in the best possible taste”.
This album is not only for the youths who wear their guitar, strapped to their back in a black case/ back pack, stumbling around outside colleges and loitering around town centres. This is guitaring for the masses. Even you, yes you, who would rather go to the bar, or take a leak that sit through a guitar solo.
The first song and title track could be a grunge/emo band with Satriani playing as a guest. It’s a driving bassline with a fragile undertone. It always seems that Joe could put ten or fifteen more notes in certain places (we know he is capable) but unlike his peers, he leaves them out for the benefit of the song. Then a shapeshift, 'Big Distortion' is a rock and roll, high school anthem, complete with hand claps and the lot.
There are softer songs such as 'All For Love' and 'Teardrops' show us that he still has the blues. There are more up-tempo songs such as 'Perfect Dust', again showing us that he still has the blues and 'Nineteen Eighty', that opened up like AC/DC’s Thunderstruck and grooved its way through. A huge highlight is the song 'Ali Farka, Dick Dale an Alien and Me'. It starts with a slightly awkward drum rhythm with squeals and blips from a more psychedelic era, then Joe plays a solo in the style of the much missed surf guitarist. I swear, if you close your eyes, its Dick himself. I’m convinced that Mr Satriani could play in any style he’d like, and get away with it. Other styles included a pinch of country and western (All My Friends Are Here), Falling Stars (Pink Floyd) and Reggae (Here the Blue River).
An accessible album that can be listened to without having specialist guitarist knowledge but can also be analysed and scrutinised by students of the axe. It’s the songs that really shine through on this album, and the soloing is just part of the song in the absence of vocals. Joe Satriani can really make the guitar talk to you. An album that constantly and effortlessly “shapeshifts” between musical styles and themes. A class act.
'Shapeshifting' is released on April 10th via Sony Music
