BEYOND APPEARANCES

This poor record is not an error in their production. It is only one out many very poor releases of the band starting already in 1978 with "Inner Secrets". At this date, no one can say when they (or should I say) he'll put an end to this.

This once fantastic and so different band has jumped in the middle of an indescriptible desert of creativity and originality trying to convert into a cameleon and adapt to the ambient mood. I have no clue who really could cope with these consecutive reconversions but for sure, I couldn't.

I had never anticiated that Santana would ever turn into a funk/soul/disco uninspired band. At least, on the previous last works there were usually two or three average to good tracks. On this album we'll get three minutes of good music with the closing number (this one reaching the three star status, not more but it should have lasted for ten minutes to make this effort more bearable).

The worse here is probably "Say It Again" : a sort of Barry White insipid stuff. But "Brotherhood" or "Two Points Of View" are of the same caliber. Just pick-up a track at random and you'll get the global picture. By the way, the Collins one is "How Long" : quite a discovery, believe me.

They probably put all their energy and creativity in the sleeve design (although I highly suspected that it was sub-contracted).

I guess that you know the verdict already, right ? One star (but the zero one would have been more appropriate).