STEVE
LUKATHER - SantaMental
(2003 Frontiers)Steve Lukather: guitars, vocals
Trevor Lukather: guitar power chords (4)
Eddie Van Halen: guitar (1, 2nd & 4th solo)
Slash: guitar (5)
Steve Vai: guitar (4, 3rd solo)
Mike Landau: guitar (8, 1st solo)
SantaMental is Steve Lukather's album for your Christmas' happy and guitar-driven moments. As you can see in the list above, there's plenty of great musicians.
Joy to the world opens in a truly insane way this album. Do you think that Santa Claus would be happy to hear this album? =) I mean, reindeers dancin' and shakin' their asses... Eddie Van Halen comes back too and he rocks as always. Luke and Eddie, what a great team...
Than it's Greensleeves... but wait a minute, there's somethin' strange in it... Enjoy it! What a jazzy arrangement!!!
Jingle Bells features a Sammy Davis Jr. sample on vocals too. Also Horns for that extra touch...
Carol of the bells features an hountin' openin, which then switches into a moody interlude. Luke and his magic touch are featured in the solos. Very tasteful as always. Keyboard solo. And here comes little Stevie Vai and his ultra personal style and touch. Wha and whammy bar for his solo. Always a pleasure to hear from you, Steve.=)
Broken Heart for Christmas has a bluesy/rock feel. I love it. I can also hear fingerpickin' in those little snaps, am I right? Cool chorus too. Slash is here too. Cool solo, man =)
Silent Night is here in a version dedicated to Jeff Beck, so here comes the whammy bar, the volume swell and the fingerpickin'. Cool ideas. Luke demonstrates he can also wear other guitarists' personality if he wants to. His touch is good as usual. The arrangement can sound a little odd at first, give it several listen... Ok, very odd, not just a little =)
The Christmas Song shows that our Luke is also truly good at jazzy chordal playin', and i love this track sooo much!
A great Xmas album, which can be enjoyed by both guitarits and "normal"
people ! ;)
Lukather's playin' is great as always, and his friends play some outrageous
stuff too. Well done Luke! =)
Rating: 9
(reviewed by Max)