AMIGOS

The last studio album showed a kind of return to the Latin-rock influences (with some funky mix though). With "Amigos" the origins will be explored again (although there is a more commercial aproach here than before). Unfortunately, the funky mood will also remain.

From the very first notes of "Dance, Sister Dance" it seems that we are going back to the early seventies and that's very fine with me (but the opener for "Festival" was also of that type and a bit misleading as far as the rest of the album was concerned) : good Latin rythm full of percussions and good (but short) guitar breaks. Great bass work from Davis Brown. Percussions are great of course with "Chepito" and Armando (although Mike is gone), Carlos as usual, good backing vocals, and celestial keyboards from Tom Coster. An incredible rythm throughou this song. A highlight.

"Take Me With You" reminds me of "Incident At Neshabur" from Abraxas. The keys here are gorgeous and the rythm is of the best Santana vein. The tempo is the same : crazy in its first half and quiter towards the finish. So far, this album is a very good surprise.

"Let Me" is jazzy/funk song of which I am not quite found.

"Gitano" as its title suggests (gypsy) has a flamenco flavour. Rythm is great but Spanish lyrics are rather weak : "Vengo de tierra lejana, Con mi guitarra en la mano" (I'm coming from far away, with a guitar in my hand) "Tengo notas de cariño, Para todos mis hermanos" (I have some tender notes, for all my brothers) Although lyrics were never the strong side of Santana, we are not reaching heaven here ...Since I guess that a lot of fans donot really care about the "message" of Santana lyrics, this won't hurt too much I guess.

"Tell Me, Are You Tired," is a soul / funky tune which won't be remembered for long. That's for sure. It is the second very weak number here.

We have another appointment with the highest emotion with the following number. I guess everybody knows "Europa". It's the fifth declination of "Samba Pa' Ti". Superb guitar work of course : slow intro and then a fantastic and rageous guitar to finish : this is the same struture / mood than one can find in the mother song. It is of course a very commercial track, but I like it very much (even thirty years later). I can only say that, to my ears, they can produce one (or two) of this type on every single album : I will never complain.

"Let It Shine" starts like "Shaft" from Issac Hayes. Unfortunately, the song turns into a kind of dreadful gospel / funky tune.

The best goes along with the worse on this album. Three stars.