SANTANA

1. Waiting- Wow, fantastic organ work here! This song is hard to resist and has some really interesting organ soloing on it. This is Santana fusion at its best and features good guitar work from Carlos (what a surprise). Try not to like this one! 10/10

2. Evil Ways- This is a much more popular Santana song that is the vein of a slower track, but it still is catchy and pretty enjoyable. I'd take this kind of well-known Santana over their later work in a heartbeat. Great instrumental interplay appears as the song develops. Fantastic! 9/10

3. Shades of Time- Another catchy song here with further great instrumentation with a jazzy feel. Not as blazingly awesome as the first two songs, but still pretty good with some more good guitar from Carlos. 8/10

4. Savor- This starts out with awesome Latin percussion and then proceeds to feature some more really groovy, outstanding instrumental work. This is my personal favorite; the instruments are all on fire! You can feel the intensity of the fusion. 10/10

5. Jingo- A good, commanding and building intro then explodes with some guitar into a Spanish-sung straight-forward rocker with guitar work driving it along. The percussion and instrumentation are awesome, even if the vocals can get annoying eventually, so that adds another point. 8/10

6. Persuasion- Decent song here with funky organ, but it's not one of my favorites and doesn't strike a chord with me as much as the previous songs. The musicianship is good and the song structure is sufficient for its length. Not bad. 6/10

7. Treat- The piano is featured more here, giving the organ a nice break and introducing a more relaxing feel to this song, despite the very impressive, fast jazzy piano parts. The instruments again all play together well and I love the percussion touch. This is another wonderful fusion instrumental from Santana and the crew. 9/10

8. You Just Don't Care- Another really good song with Carlos's fantastic guitar work and everyone else complementing well. This one features vocals and is more in the vein of Persuasion as it is more of a rockier, repetitive song with atypical fusion elements. For that reason, I don't like it as much as the more explorative blazing pieces, but it still is good. Carlos's mid-song solo is of particular note. 7/10

9. Soul Sacrifice- Hypnotic, groovy percussion opens this one and you know immediately you're in for a treat (which is coming two songs late I suppose). The interplay between the drums, percussion, guitar, and organ is fantastic here and this is an effective closer. You can hear the instruments talking to each other well on this track-a feature which I think makes it extremely intriguing. If you want to hear what Santana's sound is all about, just give this song a listen. 10/10

This is a very important album in the makings of jazz and Latin fusion with rock and it is extremely good. It is close to being a masterpiece, but barely misses the mark and still is an excellent addition to any prog music collection.

A wonderful album of blazing, enjoyable instrumental work and an almost dance-able fusion edge that makes it unique and extremely satisfying. Recommended.

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