SHANGÓ

Santana opened the eighties with the good "Zebop" album. After having released two very poor albums it was a kind of relief for me and I just had hoped that they would go on like this. Unfortunately, it is not the case. This album brings us back to the poor soul / disco / funky stuff as in "Inner Secrets " and "Marathon".

Very few good songs here. Uninspired almost all the way long. We also get some AOR with "Nowhere To Run". What a pity !

"Nueva York" featuring Rollie on the keyboard is the first good song so far (and we are almost in the mid of it). Great percussions, good guitar and heavy keys like Gregg can play. This track brings us back to their earliest days (Santana I in 1969). It is like seing a ghost ! What a nice and strange moment. Gregg, you should never have left ! Shame on you to have done this to me (I'm just kidding, of course but still...).

The afro-cuban rythms for "Oxun" are not too bad, but the vocals are very weak. The "tribal" choir is also very dispensible. Some good percussions as well in "Body Surfing", but this almost reggae song won't be remembered for long...

The poppy "What Does It Take" almost sounds like Supertramp. With good guitar breaks, this song is above the average of this album (which is rather low, I admit).

Another bit of reggae with "Let Me Inside". It is quite remakable that Santana investigated into this direction so long after the heights of the genre (1975 through 1980 or so).

"Warrior" is also too much AOR oriented to be interesting. The tribal "Shango" closes the album very poorly. One star for this very weak work.