Receive Weekly Email and Text Message Updates:
Sign up for latest info on concerts, dining, promotions and more!
Go!

Related Stories ...

Reader's Picks

Top Recommendations

A short list of Denver's most popular hot spots.
user content provided by: LikeMe.net & Westword

National Features >

  • City Pages

    Michele Bachmann, Unmuzzled

    You don't need to read Sarah Palin's book to hear the ravings of a mad woman.

    By Matt Snyders

  • Miami New Times

    Pimp Daddy

    The rise and fall of a chubby sex-cult leader.

    By Natalie O'Neill

  • Riverfront Times

    Babe 'n' Arms

    Tom was a hot-tempered cross-dresser with a garage full of guns--and then he became Rachel.

    By Nicholas Phillips

  • Dallas Observer

    The Fight for Texas

    Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison are locked in a battle over the soul of the GOP. They're also running for governor.

    By Sam Merten

Santana

All That I Am (Arista)

Share

  • rss

By Michael Roberts

Published on November 17, 2005

This marks the third time in a row that Carlos Santana has made the same album. And if the success of the original model, Supernatural (a multi-platinum 1999 Grammy magnet), explains the project from a financial standpoint, it doesn't make the disc any less redundant.

Although the Supernatural formula essentially treats Santana as a sideman on his own CD, he offers his trademark licks cheerfully, filling every open space that presents itself. At this point, however, the presence of the requisite mega-star cast makes him seem unsure that his comeback will stick -- and if co-producer Clive Davis keeps forcing him to put his name on the likes of "Just Feel Better," in which Steven Tyler imitates Rob Thomas, or "Brown Skin Girl," belted by Bo "Fading Idol" Bice, it might not.

By comparison, "Hermes" and "El Fuego" are more enjoyable, if only because they recall the work Santana did before his career needed propping up and feature no celebrities whatsoever. These cuts reveal a lot more of who he is than the rest of All That I Am.