"Since 'Supernatural,' ain't nothin' changed," proclaims rapper Melkie Jean on an unexpected hip-hop interlude buried somewhere in the middle of "Shaman," Santana's follow-up to the most remarkable comeback album since 1982's "Christmas with the Chipmunks, Vol. 2." He's absolutely right. The 1999 blockbuster stunned pretty much everyone by pairing a classic rock legend with a Shoney's-size buffet of contemporary pop stars -- in other words, the very musicians that classic rock aficionados were most likely to loathe. "Shaman" follows the same formula to a tee, to the point of sporting the same sort of surreal "let me surround my face with weird swirly red and purple crap" artwork on the cover.
"Supernatural" added an interesting bit of confusion to the otherwise trite phrase "sell out." While most often used as a form of criticism, strictly speaking, "to sell out" implies a change only for the sake of rewards and doesn't necessarily involve a decrease in quality. Santana is clearly one of the biggest sellouts in the history of recorded music, but it's a lateral change -- he went from making jam-based, drum-laced Latin rock fusion to marketable pop. The catch is that, unfortunately for his detractors and fortunately for music fans everywhere, it's pretty darn good as far as pop goes.
"Shaman" is, to put it bluntly, more of the same. There are, once again, guest stars of every conceivable ilk, with cameos by everyone from fellow Latin rockers P.O.D. to recent R&B sensation Musiq Soulchild and a flat-out ridiculous appearance by Tenor #3 himself, the diaphragmically enhanced Placido Domingo. There is, however, one crucial (albeit seemingly unintentional) difference between the pop star granola approaches of the two albums -- this time around, the featured artists fit more smoothly into their chosen songs.
The good part about this is that individually, the songs are much tighter. The song featuring Dido sounds like, well, a Dido song; and the song which features Seal sounds like (you guessed it!) something from Seal. The bad part, then, is that they don't sound like Santana songs. Most of the time, the "collaboration" bit sounds like an afterthought -- more like a [insert musician's name here] song with few elaborations provided by the guitar played by Carlos Santana.
Going from a shiny, happy Michelle Branch to an introspective Musiq to an unusually tame Seal in under 10 minutes can be an unusual rollercoaster at first (complete with the appropriate nausea), but with enough listens to implant the track listing in your memory, almost all of the songs are eventually likeable.
There are exceptions, however. For some unfathomable reason, Chad Kroeger, modern rock's reigning overrated singer, is brought in for a tune that sounds more like Natalie Imbruglia than anything in his own poor, fashionably scruffy vein. Not even his little hero can save this song; however, the chance to hear the mouth under that goatee-looking thing babble out lyrics reminiscent of a love-struck pre-teen's daydreams is priceless.
P.O.D. plays the part quite predictably with "America," which starts out all heavy and grand but eventually disappoints with the latest of singer Sonny Sandoval's unfortunate attempts to fill Zack de la Rocha's Latino rap-rocker shoes.
Dido's contribution does not, as she claims, "feel like fire;" it's bland -- too bland to deserve any further adjectives. Let's just say there's a reason it got cut from the "No Angel" track listing.
Macy Gray's provocative, scratchy crooning probably would have been better suited to something sparse and bluesy like "Sideways," but seeing as how she was instead given the infectious two-step merengue of "Amor
(Sexo)," complete with horn section, her vocal work is forgivable.
As with "Supernatural," the best parts of "Shaman" are still those that are straight-up Santana, once again exhibiting his talent and continued relevance. "Adouma" is a great choice for the album opener and should thrill the purists, while the slower "Victory Is Won" provides a much-needed break in the album and is vaguely reminiscent of "Europa."
"Foo Foo" is about as close to a party anthem as you're going to get from Santana, and, surprisingly enough, does not feature an appearance by Dave Grohl. Sure, Carlos has been working with more mainstream artists recently, but what few of his newfound critics seem to grasp is that even his classic work is entirely based around collaboration. The best songs always were either those driven by extended jams with the best rock keyboardists of the day or those that showcased the world-class percussion section. The list of ex-band members currently stretches well into the forties, not including the guests from "Supernatural" and "Shaman."
Kasey Kasem better watch out, because Carlos is back with a PG-rated, mainstream radio-friendly vengeance and pretty much all of the hot artists.
Let's just hope he draws the line when he gets to Lil Bow Wow.
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