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New Santana Album "Africa Speaks"


Santana has a new album out; since it's not quite jazz, and I'm not sure if it's Rock, I'll just throw it up for grabs and see who likes it.

Africa Speaks is inspired by music from the continent of Africa, and has been called a "unique fusion of rock, Latin and jazz". Many of the album's tracks were recorded in one take. The album features vocals from Spanish singer Buika.

Africa Speaks was released on June 7, 2019 by Concord Records and Suretone Records, but this is the first time I've seen it on "you-tube"

Since it has been hard for me to find anything by Santana that I didn't like, I'll refrain from expressing my biased opinion.


      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD4a7bAnhrM&list=PLW0qrlJ-5IPmYy6pMLK1wv4Fq8V3bIFMm



What do you think?
orpheus10
frogman
7,493 posts
 
Come now, the OP did ask “What do you think?”. What do I think?

I like Santana. Soulful guitar player with a distinctive sound even if, as a soloist, he strikes me as a bit of a one trick pony. I like some of his “citizen of the world” musical conceptualizations, but some of these don’t quite work for me and they strike me as both a little forced and a little “lite”. I agree with Chazro, and his Buika clip is a good example of something that pushes a lot of the same buttons conceptually; but, for me, is more successful.

Thanks for posting, OP; always good to keep up with certain artists whose latest efforts I would not have heard otherwise.
orpheus10 OP
8,668 posts
 
Thank you for your comments Frogman.
johnto
1,040 posts
 
Giving it another listen now, it is nice music but as others note does suffer from compression and dynamic loss. I don't need everything in my face so to speak.I do love the first 3 Santana Lp's.
lak's avatar
lak
4,713 posts
 
After receiving the CD and listening to it a couple of times I can truly say that I'm in no hurry to play it again. Too much repetition and in your face for me.
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
Its pretty good but not really that new?
I streamed this on Qobuz last year?
It was refreshing compared to some of his later previous works but I do not think the recording itself is that great SQ wise.
Cant say as it will ever replace Moonflower as my top Santana album though.
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