Santana - Supernatural

Santana’s 18th studio album follows a trend I’ve noticed in many superstar-level artists reaching the later parts of their careers - gratuitous guest stars galore. The guest feature phenomenon can go really well or really poorly, depending on the album. At its best, this trend is an awesome way for an established act to pass along some of their hard-won exposure to worth heirs or up and coming artists, or less excitingly, to shout-out to some of their peers who don’t need the exposure but certainly won’t turn it down. But some albums like this can turn into something like the NBA all-star game, with absolutely no competitive drive, morphing into more of a circus show than a legitimate artistic effort.

I think this album, which won a Grammy in 2000 and had great commercial success, falls somewhere in between the guest-star-rich attention grab and a true artistic output. The multiple featured artists take away from any identity or theme this album might have contained, making this sound more like a playlist than a cohesive album. But on the other hand, it’s a pretty darn fun playlist. It’s very poppy, without a doubt, but it’s not overly icky pop for the most part.

OK there was one pretty big “ick” - Dave Matthews’ weird intro on “Love of My Life”. Scat on your own time, Dave. Ugh.

From the roundup Some Excellent Albums from 2000.