Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
We listen to music to be entertained and enthralled, more importantly we listen to learn about ourselves, to find ways to shed the skin we have and to inhabit a new belief, to force ourselves to transform from the basic uneducated version to one of the fully rounded human being, one who sees metamorphosis as a right and not as a hindrance.
The art of the Shapeshifting mortal is one lost to someone who refuses to see time as a teacher, they cling to the belief that it is the surroundings that alter their appearance, that the individual remains, implausibly, the same.
“Nothing is more powerful than custom or habit“, the words of the venerated Roman poet, Ovid, hangs in the air of time, a warning of not embracing change and the malaise it can cause in the soul, Shapeshifting might seem extreme, the image of beast to human is one for the annals of the science fiction admirer, but for Joe Satriani it is the next step in a career that just keeps giving to the listener.
With each album there has always been a slight pulse change that makes the traditional sound that we are used to, make the listener pause and catch their breath, that the shift we are experiencing is in perspective, the acceptance that we ourselves as aural voyeurs, must abide by and there is arguably anyone finer that can implore that lesson that Joe Satriani.
Across the instrumental album, tracks such as Big Distortion, Ali Farka, Dick Dale, An Alien and Me, the excellent Nineteen Eighty, Spirits, Ghosts and Outlaws and the sublime Here The Blue River, what comes across is generous inspiration, a musical odyssey that sees custom become yet another leap of innovation. It takes genius to give the listener an aural sensation but make them understand the weaving narrative that underpins each track, the soaring high, the beautiful stride across each guitar solo.
We change because we must, we learn because Time insists that we have no choice but to adapt; to be in the position where Shapeshifting gives you Goosebumps and pleasure, that is the creation of a new world in which your novel form can wander unhindered. Absolutely stunning.
Joe Satriani releases Shapeshifting on Friday 10th April via Sony Music.
Ian D. Hall
