ANANDA SHANKAR

I'm shocked that this album was ranked as the 2nd highest album in its category here. The covers of 60's pop songs are cheap-sounding and uninspired, as is the original music on the album. As each track ended, I thought that the next one would reveal to me why this album is well-regarded. It did not. To my ears, it sounds as if a rock musician picked up a sitar and began to clumsily strum in the same way he would play guitar, not realizing how uninspired the result sounded on an instrument where inspiration is everything. Most of the songs are slow, apparently meant to be introspective or aesthetically peaceful, and there is little change of pace, atmosphere, or tone from song to song.

My mind was already made up about the rating, but a nail in the coffin comes on the final track where he says, "Let us sing in praise of Rama, who is the eternal one... it matters little whether we call him Allah, Buddha, Christ, or Jehovah. He belongs equally to us all." My initial impression was that this seems out of place considering the overly commercial nature of the rest of the album, but then I thought about what was just said. I suppose the intention here is good, and I acknowledge the attempt at unity, but this statement is theologically ridiculous. Allah and Jehovah are indeed types of supreme beings, but Christ and especially Buddha are not compatible with this statement. Christ is the logos of the Christian faith, the bridge between man and God, and the Buddha is the great teacher in Buddhism. It is simply inaccurate to suggest that either Buddha or Jesus is comparable to the supreme being figures listed.

The primary faults of this album are the cheap 60's rock covers which appear to solely be attempts to cash in on the songs' popularity and the uninspired, repetitive, clunky playing comprising the rest of the album.

Rating: 2/10