) to 5 ().
U2
The Best of 1980-1990
You're basic "greatest hits" album, only it excludes the work they did in the 90s. From 1980 to 1990 U2 put out a lot of great stuff and it really shows. Throw in the great new song Sweetest Thing and you've got yourself a winner. The album does loose a star for excluding some of thier material from the 90s (I need somebody to explain to me the rationalization behind this).
Triple Fast Action
Cattlemen Don't
This was the second album from this little known band from Chicago. Although the band broke up in May of 98, they still managed to put out two of the better albums of the second half of the decade. While this album wasn't quite as strong as thier Freshman effort "Broadcaster" it still has what it takes to garner a very high opinion from me, which is quite a remarkable achievement in itself. Excelent guitar parts, great arrangement, and terriffic song writing and lyrics make this album stand out. It does suffer from redundency a little, so it looses one star
Santana
Supernatural
Once again Mr. Santana delivers to us an act of guitar godliness. Featuring the hit song "Smooth" this album promises to be one of Santana's most comercially successful albums. Featuring guest vocal performances by Everlast, Dave Matthews, and Lauryn Hill a wide variety of vocal stylings are explored over Santana's latin rythms. The high-point of the guest performances however is when Santana matches guitar licks with one of his compentetors for the title of greatest living guitar player, Eric Clapton. A more mellow song than his usual (perhaps due to Clapton's involvement) this song has a beautiful mix of guitar styles. All these guest performers do have a few drawbacks. I mean, I suppose it could be my narrow view of things, but I find rap to be far too grating a vocal style to really flow with Santana's guitar work. I suppose one could blame Santana for that but it is his album and he is about as close to god as any guitar player is ever going to get, so I can't really detract from him for that. However, I can't find it in my heart to penalize an album with such beautiful guitar work for some poor vocal selections, so to you Carlos, my friend, I give a perfect rating.
Buckcherry
Buckcherry
Alright, it's about time someone made a good rock record. A lot of songs stand out on this record, as there is energy abundent, and good ole rock solos everywhere. A lot of people say it's a mix of AC/DC and Guns 'N Roses, but I see a lot more AC/DC than anything else. I'm really glad that this album came out and that it got some recognition, let's hope for a long career of more of the same from this band. Perfect rating.
