BORBOLETTA

The atmosphere of this album reminds me very much the one of Caravanserai. The very short opener "Spring Manifestations" sounds like its counterpart "Eternal Caravan of Reincarnation". This album clearly enters now into a more latin-jazz-rock-oriented style (already very present in "Welcome"). This is confirmed with the smooth jazzy composition "Canto De Los Flores" : tranquil moment of relaxation.

"Life is Anew" is a very pleasant song : very cool vocals, great guitar and keyboard work at the end of the track. Great Santana music. "Give & Take" has a good intro but the vocal part is dreadful. It is a monotonous funk/jazz track. Not my cup of tea (but if you have read some of my other reviews you know by now my very limited taste for these genres). The next track "One With the Sun" has good percussions again (but I guess that it is all too normal for Santana, right ?) and great guitar from the master."Aspirations" is definitely too jazzy for me : too much sax, although it is smoothed by the great percussion work in the back (thanks Chepito, Armando and Mike). A weak track again.

"Practice What You Preach" starts like "Samba 'Pa Ti, but the vocals here are not really on par. Should have remained an all instrumental, really. The finale of the song is again great for Santana lovers. On the contrary, vocals on "Mirage" are quite good. It is a poppy song (the first one ?). The dual vocal / guitar works very well. "Here & Now" is a jazzy jam track and is the weakest track of the album.

"Flor De Candela" starts great again thanks to the fantastic percussion work. It is a more classic Santana song (at last !). But unfortunately, waaaay too short.

"Promise of a Fisherman" is a typical Santana song of that era : great rythmics, very much keyboard oriented with some good guitar breaks and solid bass work. The guitar was a bit more dominant in the "epic" songs from Caranvanserai but this one is a serious attempt to one of the great Santana number. It is the longest number here (over eight minutes). The highlight. No doubt about it !

The closing number and title track is very weak and useless (hopefully it clocks to less than three minutes). It's the third time that the closing number is rather poor on a Santana album ("Abraxas" and "III" being the other ones). I would say that if they were short of inspiration, they could easily avoid these moments. They do not add anything to the glory of the band.

This album is also the last one for Mike Shrieve (he will leave the band for the supporting tour leading to the live "Lotus" - but still co-producing it). Thanks a lot Mike for these great drumming moments. I will ALWAYS love and remember your fantastic solo during "Soul Sacrifice" at Woodstock. I must admit that the Santana I like the most, is when the band plays his wonderful latin-rock music. Still, this album is a good work. Three stars.