Search - Steve Vai :: The Elusive Light and Sound Vol.1

Certainly elusive, but worthy?

Paul Lawrence | Australia | 07/21/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Just had to pick this album up after seeing Vai blaze away as the devils own six stringer in Crossroads, an otherwise horrid jumble of a movie. And you know what? It's actually pretty good in places.



What holds this release back is the fact that it's just a bunch of utterly unconnected snippets of music, I mean it's one CD and yet it has 40 tracks on it which should give you an idea of the length of many of the pieces. Beyond that there is also the fact that with such short tunes there isn't exactly much foom for development or for the release to hold together as more than the sum of its' parts. Of course if you've actually seen some of these films then you may (or may not) get more out of it depending on your impressions of the films.



On the positive side is the undoubted talent of Mr Vai himself. Having seen him live I can attest to the fact that he can pull all this off in a live setting too which increases the esteem in which I hold him. Of course it's two different things to be a great musician and to be able to write great music.....



This is a neat little grab bag of cool tracks, cameos and curiosities and for the casual rock fan is utterly dispensable. For guitar/shred fans this is probably not a bad buy and for Vai devotees it's probably required listening to fill in the blanks in your collection, especially as some of the tracks here didn't make the soundtrack albums of some of the movies this stuff is from.



Just to close off this review, the flims these tracks are from or inspired by are;



Crossroads, Dudes, Bill & Teds Bogus Journey, Encino Man and PCU."