AMIGOS

Amigos finds Santana well and truly locked into the commercial trajectory their music would take for a good long while. Playing jazzy disco-funk with occasionally infuriating lyrics (Let Me is particularly irritating on that front), the album is saved from being a complete waste by Carlos Santana's guitar heroics, which are extremely technically accomplished though, if I'm being honest, more than a little bland and generic this time around. Particularly sad is the lack of Flora Purim and Airto Moreira, whose contributions had been so helpful on Borboletta and Welcome. This has to be considered one for the Santana fanatics only, I fear.