Perfect Instrumental Guitar Rock, August 31, 2001

This the definitive Vai album. It contains Vai's greatest work and the playing is the best i've ever heard. Warning: no real vocals ( I know some people need vocals to enjoy music). Vai lets his guitar do most of the talking on this album and boy can he make it talk. Here's a breakdown of all the songs:1 - Liberty - 5/5 - This song seriously sounds like it could be a national anthem.2 - Erotic Nightmares - 5/5 - This song rocks hard and he makes some crazy noises with his guitar on it3 - The Animal - 5/5 - This song is just downright cool.4 - Answers - 5/5 - This is a very fun song.5 - The Riddle - 5/5 - This song feels very mysterious.6 - Ballerina 12/24 - 4/5 - Not my style, but boy does it sound cool. This song is very.. um.. different. It sounds like a baby song.7 - For The Love of God - 5/5 - This song is a Vai classic and although it is hard it is also soothing.8 - The Audience is...

Just read through all of the reviews here and WOW --- some people on here must be tone-deaf or something! I think these days too many people think that the point of music is "hooks" (hence why the few who have given this album very negative reviews seem to mention satch). If you refuse to listen to any music that doesnt have some kind of hook or catchy riff that makes you tap your foot or nod your head, you will lead a very sheltered musical life! In this album, Vai takes a MUCH more mature approach to music than this, and creates a combination of catchiness on certain pieces (erotic nightmares for example), raw power on some (audience is listening, I would love to), and sheer emotion in others (for the love of god, blue powder). You have the absolute delicacy and wonderfully simple composition in "ballerina 12/24, and then complete experimentation in Love Secrets (which throws up some moments that can only be described as divine).I cannot say one bad thing about this...

I first became aware of Steve Vai during his stint as a hired guitar pyrotechnic with David Lee Roth (hey, I was too young for Zappa!) Anyway, I bought this on tape when it first came out some 10 years ago and I still have yet to get bored by it.The collection of songs represents the full range of Vai's prodigious talent.