INNER SECRETS

Yes, I should hate this album. For several reasons: it´s clearly commercial, it has many covers and it´s not exactly what you might expect from the "classic" Santana sound. Still, they did a marvelous job anyway. First: the covers are surprisingly good. I really didn´t know they were capable of doing such a work on songs like Dealer (Traffic), Well All Right (Buddy Holly, covered by Blind Faith), One Chain (Don´t Make No Prison) (Four Tops) and even the Classic IV 1968 famous top ten hit Stormy. I was completely taken by surprise of how singer Greg Walker could emulate Steve Winwood´s voice so faithfully. That is no small feat at all. But the band´s arrangements and performance are also spotless. Even the disco-ish One Chain works wonders, maybe because Santana familiarity with percussion and the fact the band´s music was always danceable. They could record a whole album of covers and it would still be very good.

But the originals are not bad either. Ok, they are not exactly classics, but for the time (1978, the year of punk and disco)) they were producing some really elaborated and melodic rock stuff. And they recorded a guitar led instrumental track to keep the tradition: Life is a Lady/Holiday is sure no Samba Pa ti, but then again, who was doing something like that in 1978? Wham is another fine instrumental track that closes the album. And I was glad they finally dropped their funk/soul attempts for good.

In the end I found Inner Secrets to be a really pleasant album. And far superior to a lot of what Santana delivered from the mid-eighties onward. With no concessions and no fillers, it was proof that they did not surrender to the fashion of the day (yet). Like the following Marathon, they were only moving on, trying to find their way in a difficult period for rock music in general. And they did that with good songs, elegance and style. I wish I could say the same about several prog acts of the period. 3,5 stars.