National Album
Santana, Supernatural (Arista)
The real deal
A few years back, I caught a Santana concert at Great
Woods and turned in a three-word review: "Santana was Santana." That about
summed up how dependable and predictable they'd gotten: you knew they'd play
the oldies, you knew that Carlos would wail on guitar, you knew the trademark
percussion-and-guitar sound would be there. But you didn't figure he'd ever do
anything different, and you didn't figure that anybody outside of the usual fan
base would ever care.
Everything changed with Supernatural, the album that won't go away. On
the surface, it embodies the cynical '90s approach to record-making: load the
thing up with guest stars, bring in a few dozen producers, hire the song
doctors, replace the band with studio pros, and stick the featured artist in
there somewhere. But in this case, it actually worked, because
Supernatural contains what every Santana album for the past two decades
was missing: real songs and real singers. Out went unctuous vocalist Alex
Ligertwood, in came a bunch of proven hit-makers (Rob Thomas, Lauryn Hill, Eric
Clapton) with material worthy of their talents. Lucky accident or not, the
Everlast-sung "Put Your Lights On" ranked as one of the edgiest radio hits of
the year. Likewise, the Santana comeback and the Latin explosion (which didn't
seem to help Los Lobos any) was one of the year's most entertaining pop-culture
accidents -- especially since Carlos Santana seemed to approach the project
without cynicism. Consider this an old hippie attempting to infuse the charts
with some old-fashioned peace and love -- and, better yet, succeeding.
|