THE ALBUM OF THE DAY IS…
JOE SATRIANI, THE EXTREMIST
I feel like I don’t really hear about instrumentalist shredder guitarists anymore- at least not in the Joe Satriani (“Satch” to the cool kids)/Steve Vai mold. I don’t know if that means they’ve gone out of fashion or I’ve just lost touch. In any case, the G3 tour tells me that somebody besides myself still thinks this shit is cool, so here goes. Back in ’92, when Satch still had hair, he scored his only real radio hit (or the only one I’ve ever really remembered) off this disc with the super catcy, ultra cheesy “Summer Song,” which Sony (the parent company of Satch’s label, Epic) put the song in a Discman (remember those?) commercial. If you can remove that awful ad from your mind’s eye, this is a really solid disc; as the title promises, the songs have a genuine adrenaline to them (which is why they’re so much fun to listen to while driving fast). The production is a little too early-90’s for its own good, but the first three songs- “Friends,” the title track and “War”- feature excellent, slightly new-agey pop-metal songwriting, to say nothing of the usual Satch goodness. But my favorite song was always the soggy power balled “Cryin’,” which would be overshadowed by the soggy power ballad of the same name released by Aerosmith a year later. Bonus: future Living Colour member Doug Wimbish on bass!
-AR
Buy The Extremist
