Band:	Joe Satriani
Album:	Flying In A Blue Dream
Style:	Progressive rock
Release date:	October 30, 1989
Guest review by:	Tzo87

01. Flying In A Blue Dream
02. The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing
03. Can't Slow Down
04. Headless
05. Strange
06. I Believe
07. One Big Rush
08. Big Bad Moon
09. The Feeling
10. The Phone Call
11. Day At The Beach (New Rays From An Ancient Sun)
12. Back To Shalla-Bal
13. Ride
14. The Forgotten (Part 1)
15. The Forgotten (Part 2)
16. The Bells Of Lal (Part 1)
17. The Bells Of Lal (Part 2)
18. Into The Light

In the late 80's came a time during which guitar virtuosos were popping out of the blue and were trying to impress by playing faster and more technical.
At that time came the album Flying In A Blue Dream by Joe Satriani, which set new standards for Satriani himself, reformed the guitar scene of the time, and invited every music fan to "fly" with him in a variety of sounds, images, and emotions...

This is the third solo album of the American guitar virtuoso, and my personal favourite by him. Most of the songs that are featured on the album are instrumental, with some exceptions that feature Joe Satriani on the vocals. He may not be a great singer, but he's quite decent, and the vocal melodies are cleverly adapted to fit his voice, kicking the show-offs out the door.

Generally, the album has "modern meets traditional" written all over it, and it contains elements from many musical genres such as hard rock, country, 80's heavy metal, blues, funk rock etc. Satriani is in top form, playing some of the most creative and melodic solos of his career. The other great musicians that participate in Flying In A Blue Dream, bind with each other in harmony, giving an extra x-factor of awesomness in the song performances with their prowess.

The Six String Goddess, which shines through her adorable sound, the constitutive playing of Satriani and the really good mixing/production of the album, has the lead role in all the songs. However, the greatest credit of the album lies in the songwriting. Joe Satriani is a guitar master, but he writes songs that can appeal to all people, regardless of their musical skills or knowledge. It's not accidental, that his songs have been played again and again on the radio or the television.

The fact that this album was the one that certified Satriani as one of the greatest guitarists of all time (something that had already began with his Surfing With The Alien album in 1987), was the one that had Alice Cooper tell him to play a few solos in his album Hey Stoopid in 1991, and was the one that Deep Purple listened to and invited him into their band as a replacement for the great guitarist Ritchie Blackmore (Satriani accepted and stayed from 1993 to 1994) are all three good reasons, to say the least, that you should give it a listen!