It's been almost four years since the release of Santana's Supernatural
(Arista), but the album's runaway success still feels as if it had come out of
nowhere. At the time, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Carlos Santana and the
line-up that bears his name hadn't had a decent record deal in 10 years, and
they hadn't had a hit for much longer than that. Sure, the group's reunion with
the man who 30 years earlier had signed them to their first recording contract
-- Arista founder Clive Davis, who immediately hooked them up with a small army
of contemporary pop's hottest performers, producers, and songwriters -- was a
step in the right direction. But nobody could have predicted that
Supernatural would become the biggest hit of the band's distinguished
career, producing two smash singles ("Smooth" and "Maria Maria"), a clean sweep
of the 2000 Grammys, and an eventual 14 million copies sold.
The roster of talent on Supernatural was as eclectic as it was
impressive: everyone from Dave Matthews to Lauryn Hill to Eric Clapton was
honored to collaborate with Santana. But the biggest star on the album turned
out to be "Smooth" singer/songwriter Rob Thomas, who'd previously been known as
the somewhat faceless frontman of post-grunge radio faves Matchbox Twenty. His
sweaty seduction act on "Smooth" changed all that, instantly transforming him
into one of the most recognizable sex symbols in pop. Perhaps more important in
terms of his career, it also established him as one of the hottest songwriters
in the biz.
Industry vets like Carlos, Clive, and Arista president Antonio "LA" Reid know
better than to repeat themselves, so Thomas is relegated to the background on
the new Santana album, Shaman (Arista), which debuted at #1 on the
charts upon its release in late October and has already sold two million
copies. The absence of his lead vocals aside, Shaman takes the
Supernatural formula and runs with it, eclipsing its predecessor's
already ambitious running time by five minutes and assembling an even more
eclectic list of guest performers.
It's hard to imagine Santana and friends matching the astronomical sales
figures of Supernatural this time around, but they sure had fun trying
-- especially on the first single from Shaman, "The Game of Love," a
commercial-pop masterpiece that trades the sultry swing of "Smooth" for a candy
store full of hooks. Pop thrush Michelle Branch coos longingly on the
microphone, and Carlos sprinkles polite rock-guitar leads around her voice
before unleashing a biting solo on cue. Mainstream-pop geeks will be delighted
to note that the track was written and produced by Alex Ander -- a/k/a former
New Radicals frontman Gregg Alexander, who released the '99 summertime smash
"You Get What You Give" and proceeded to retire from performing before the
track had even left the charts. In his long-promised return to songwriting and
production, Alexander picks up where he left off, with a giddy chorus that
looks silly on paper but sounds perfect on the radio: "It just takes a little
bit of this, a little bit of that/It started with a kiss/Now we're up to
bat."
Alexander shares the songwriting spotlight with Thomas at the beginning of
Shaman, which features two tracks penned by Mr. "Smooth" himself, with
production duties delegated to Latin-pop luminaries like Cori Rooney and Lester
Mendez. On the brooding "Nothing at All," Philly soul-man Musiq conveys a deep
sense of loss as Carlos's acoustic guitar flutters in the distance. Carlos
brightens things up with a carefree electric-guitar refrain on "You Are My
Kind," a tender love song with Seal on lead vocals. Both tracks could stand to
borrow some sizzle from "Smooth," but for a one-time Pearl Jam disciple, Thomas
continues to display a surprisingly good ear for Latin pop.
"The Game of Love" and the pair of Thomas songs are the big pop moves on
Shaman. But like Supernatural, the album hardly stops there. It's
roughly divided into three sections -- pop, rock, and world beat -- separated
by the type of largely instrumental Latin-rock jams Santana have been playing
since their breakthrough performance at the Woodstock festival in '69. Before
Supernatural, the band's best-selling album had always been the '74
compilation Santana's Greatest Hits (Columbia), which draws only from
the three classic albums they made with their original line-up.
Carlos the reborn pop star can't fit as many vintage-sounding Santana songs on
his albums as he used to, but old-school fans won't be disappointed in the
tracks without high-profile guest performers on Shaman. To hear Carlos
the guitar god at his rawest, check out the self-penned weeper "Victory Is
Won," which veers into space-rock territory at the end and features a
rollicking solo by long-time Santana keyboardist Chester Thompson. The
percussion-heavy 11-piece Santana touring band will also be kicking out the
jams on their upcoming US tour, which is scheduled to hit Boston in June.
Supernatural made its biggest impact at Top 40 radio, but it also threw
modern-rock fans a bone with the hit "Put Your Lights On," which was written
and performed by Everlast. On Shaman, ace pop-metallers P.O.D. get the
lead rock single; their arena-sized scorcher "America" inspires Carlos to turn
his guitar up loud enough to conjure the spirit of Woodstock contemporary Jimi
Hendrix. Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger sounds uncharacteristically playful
on "Why Don't You & I," probably because producer Mendez cushions the
song's guitar crunch with a parade of Latin beats.
The overtly commercial nature of Santana's current work is at odds with the
purist sensibility that dominates the classic-rock world they've inhabited for
most of their career. But Santana and friends do an impressive job of
navigating the vast spectrum of stylistic extremes on Shaman, and the
album makes a convincing case that Carlos's sweet, soulful guitar leads would
sound good over just about any type of music. Even opera -- yes, that's
world-famous tenor Plácido Domingo singing Carlos's lyrics on "Novus,"
the melodramatic spiritual that ends the disc. "Looking into the future/We can
see the beginning/Children living in peace and harmony/That is the way it will
be," Plácido sings, and Carlos's stinging electric guitar cries out in
empathy. Shaman wants to be all things to all listeners, and it succeeds
more often than not -- at the very least, it's the sound of an old master doing
some of his finest work.
For Rob Thomas, collaborating with Santana marked the beginning of a creative
windfall that's been raining down on him ever since. "Smooth" was immediately
followed by the release of the second Matchbox Twenty album, Mad Season
(Atlantic), which pushed the band in a more sophisticated direction and spawned
the massive pop hits "Bent" and "If You're Gone." Thomas also started doing
more outside songwriting work, landing tracks on albums by Mick Jagger, Willie
Nelson, and Marc Anthony. But Matchbox Twenty remains his top priority: the
group's latest album, More Than You Think You Are (Atlantic), debuted at
#6 on the Billboard album chart upon its release in November and has
since gone platinum.
Matchbox Twenty
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You don't have to dig deep to hear the profound influence of Thomas's side work
on More Than You Think You Are -- the album's first single, "Disease,"
is a song he wrote with Mick Jagger during the sessions for Jagger's latest
solo album, Goddess in the Doorway (Virgin). Goddess was a dud,
but "Disease" is anything but: as Thomas points out in the official Matchbox
Twenty biography at atlantic-records.com, "It's like Monsters of Rock goes to
Studio 54." The song's faux disco beat is a playful nod to the Stones'
"Miss You," and the meaty guitar riff that carries the verses could have been
lifted from the new Bon Jovi album. "I got a disease/Deep inside me, makes
me/Feel uneasy, baby," howls Thomas, breathlessly filtering Jagger's
angst-ridden sex vibe through his own "Smooth" persona.
Ever since Matchbox Twenty's '96 debut, Yourself or Someone like You
(Atlantic), pushed lite rock into the new millennium by selling 12 million
copies, the band have been inching toward respectability. More Than You
Think You Are, which drops the symphonic pretensions of Mad Season
in favor of a more organic approach, is their gutsiest album to date. Drummer
Paul Doucette and guitarist Kyle Cook join in on the songwriting process for
the first time, and the opening "Feel" displays a newfound looseness that suits
the band well. Elsewhere, they show a healthy passion for British Invasion
melodies and Black Crowes swagger alike.
Thomas may be assimilated into the shiny happy world of mainstream pop these
days, but as a lyricist he's retained much of the downcast tone that marked his
alterna-rock beginnings. "I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell/I know, right
now you can't tell," he sings on "Unwell," which ranks as one of the album's
most memorable songs, with its melancholy banjo hook and harmony-rich chorus.
On "All I Need," he's just looking for someone to get him through the night.
And the piano ballad "Bright Lights" is an aching ode to an old girlfriend who
left him for the big city.
Thomas heads to the city himself on the closing "The Difference," which finds
him slow-dancing on the boulevard with another lost love to a thrift-store
Springsteen melody. Top 40 songwriters get depressed sometimes too. Lucky for
Thomas he's got his own ever-improving serious rock band to turn to when times
get tough.
Issue Date: January 10 - 16, 2003
