CARAVANSERAI

Santana

Jazz Rock/Fusion

4.22 | 781 ratings

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Bonnek
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator

Caravanserai is Santana's try at a more reflective kind of fusion album, abandonnning his usual soul-inspired songwriting for largely instrumental and brooding music.

The album is largely successful at that and it became a successful title with Prog audiences. There are a couple of things though that refrain me from giving it an excellent rate. The most important one is that the few songs (as in tracks with vocals) on the album don't touch the quality of previous Santana song material. Just in Time to See the Sun and Stone Flower are enjoyable Latin pop songs but hardly Santana's best. All The Love of the Universe however is a real letdown in my book. Especially the vocals are sub-par, strained, almost off-key, chaotic and far from memorable.

A second thing that's gone missing is the passion and emotion of Santana's sound. Admitted, this album still has a brooding tension underneath the surface but even it isn't till the end of the album that Santana sets the house on fire.

An excellent album when it comes to the instrumental tracks, a bit of a disappointment where the songwriting is concerned. Santana works better for me if he lets his passion burn spontaneously, without intellectualizing it all too much. 3.5 stars, still a recommended listen.

Bonnek | 3/5 | 2010-11-29

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