Published on Apr 16, 2003
Like many people, I suppose, I got into Joe Satriani courtesy of
his ground-breaking album
Surfing With The Alien. I’ve been fortunate enough to see
him perform in concert, and experience my jaw scraping the floor of
the arena watching Satriani do things on a guitar that didn’t seem
humanly possible. I have every album Satriani has released (not
including
G3 Live In Concert), and occasionally pull those out of the
Pierce Memorial Archives when I need to clear out the mental
pipes.
Yet I can’t help wondering, when I listen to
Not Of This Earth, Satriani’s first full-length disc, why
people made such a big deal out of this album. For all of the hype
that has surrounded Satriani (most of which is deserved),
Not Of This Earth demonstrates a lot of flash, but not as
much substance musically.
Make no mistake, Satriani proves right out of the gate that he
is an outstanding guitar player, as evidenced by the title track.
He chooses to let a lead/rhythm line of his guitar do the work of a
vocalist, and the power he unleashes by doing this is unbelievable.
By the time he gets to the lightning-fast riffing in the solo, the
listener will be hooked.
One wishes that all of the cuts on
Not Of This Earth were of this caliber. Indeed, tracks like
“The Enigmatic,” “Hordes Of Locusts” and “New Day” all capture the
six-string frenzy and power of Satriani. But the bulk of this disc
finds Satriani actively searching for his instrumental voice, and
not always making the correct choices.
Take “Rubina,” for example. Admittedly not a bad track, it
occasionally seems to be without purpose, not exactly knowing which
direction the music should go. That tentativeness is also heard on
tracks like “Driving At Night,” “Memories” and “The Snake” – tracks
which should have been slamming the listener’s head to the ground
with their power, but end up bouncing off of the headphones with a
splat.
One part of the problem seems to be that Satriani is trying to
do too much on his own. Yes, I know he handled the lion’s share of
the duties on
Surfing With The Alien as well, but on
Not Of This Earth, it sometimes sounds like Satriani became
overwhelmed with trying to be a whiz on guitar, bass and keyboards,
and trying to balance the three to make it sound like an actual
band. The second problem is the drum work of Jeff Campitelli – no
offense, but I sometimes found it hard to believe that I wasn’t
listening to a drum machine, that’s how robotic these rhythm tracks
often sound. Granted, something could have also been done in the
mix to remove the tinny quality of the percussion sound, but
sometimes you have to work with what you laid down on tape.
Yes, everyone needs to get their start somewhere, and I know
that without
Not Of This Earth, we wouldn’t have such Satriani
masterpieces as
Surfing With The Alien. But one would be hard-pressed to say
that
Not Of This Earth is of the same caliber. Let’s call this
one a learning experience that’s for the die-hard fans only.