SANTANA 3

This Third Album by Santana is the last of three albums by the band that I will review. Like I explained in previous reviews I do this because I hardly consider Santana prog and I choose to pick out his most "proggy" (this one plus Caravanserai and Borboletta) albums to review and leave the rest for what they are.

This great third album starts with the energetic Batuka and gives thus a marvelous preview for the rest of the album. Next one No one to depend on is a bit more commercial sounding but the fantastic rhythm makes that an unimportant fact. Third is Taboo also starting pretty fierce but then turning into a sort of Santana ballad. This is so wonderfully laid back, if you haven't got the summer feeling by now, forget it ! Toussaint L'Overture is a semi-instrumental because there are vocals but they are more producing sound than singing words. Anyway, the fourth winner in a row for sure ! Everybody's Everything is one of my all time favourites by Santana because of the brilliant guitar in the second half of the song.

Guajira is one of those giant classic songs by the band, one that will never die on me. Jungle Strut is another firecracker of a song, huge rhythm and great instrumental stuff. Everything's coming our way is only the second more laid back track of the lot, not a superb one in my opinion and almost gets lost in the incredible offering this album is. Para los Romberos is even much more dispensable being the least of this near masterpiece. This track is a bit too simple and repetitive.

Three live tracks at the end of this CD are a bonus, two of them (Batuka and Jungle Strut) were already in the line up of this album but third is Gumbo another rhythmic swinging one. They did it again: they brought me in a great mood after listening to it once again. Santana is one of the very few bands who can achieve this. 4 stars at least.