Santana: Shaman

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * )

Again, Carlos Santana's new album is not about quality of his solos but the quantity of his duets on what is an all-star sequel to his 1999 comeback album Supernatural. This does occasionally fire up with the percussion-happy Latin-blues-rock of Santana, the band, on the likes of the opening Adouma (written by Angelique Kidjo), Foo Foo and Aye Aye Aye, with Santana adding a couple of downtempo instrumentals.


Macy Gray on Amore (Sexo) is one of the few names who appears to be performing in the same time zone as Santana. That can't be said of the rest of the guests, whose inclusions smack of demographic base-covering. There are sweet female singers — Michelle Branch on likeable first single The Game of Love, and Dido, on whose Feels Like Fire Santana spends most of the song sounding like he's trying to wake her up. There are hairy young men of rock — P. O. D. on the very duff America and Nickleback's Chad Kroeger on power ballad Why Don't You and I. And there is one old hairy man of opera — Placido Domingo who bellows over the final track Novus. Shaman? Shame, man.

label: Arista