Salı 12 Haz 2007, 17:50
I've had it. I'm sick of having to sift through guitarists’ mediocre releases for the flashes of brilliance that used to be on full display for entire albums. So I'm calling them out.
A number of guitarists out there started their careers releasing entirely instrumental albums that revolutionized the genre. They gained popularity, rightfully so. But then they said to themselves "Well, I'm in the money. Now I can start pumping out lame, uninspired albums with mostly vocal tracks." And they did. Yet they remain among the most popular instrumentalists, all while countless up-and-coming guitarists are out there releasing far superior, entirely instrumental albums without commercial success. Without further ado, here are:
The Purpetrators
Joe Satriani
Excluding blues/jazz/classical guitarists (an act that should be performed whenever possible), Joe Satriani has the most last.fm listeners of any solo guitarist. Which, of course, makes him the best. Yeah…
To date, he's released 10 studio albums. Of these, only two, 1987's Surfing With The Alien and 1992's The Extremist, contain the vast majority of his most popular tracks. The 15 years between now and The Extremist's 1992 release have seen 6 more studio albums, as well as numerous live and compilations, released under Satriani's name. They have been marked by a steady decline in quality, with guitar instrumentals being supplanted by ill-fated forays into vocal tracks and other poorly-executed genre combinations.
Very few guitar instrumentalists have even 6 studio albums to their names. Of these, perhaps only Satriani could release six straight flops and yet somehow remain at the top of the genre. It isn't fair to the other guitarists putting out quality instrumental albums, but past that, it isn't fair to those buying his albums.
Yngwie Malmsteen
He is as big a culprit as any. (Big, get it?) His debut album, Rising Force, was nothing short of a triumph. Not a track is wasted, and most remain concert essentials to this day. He followed this with Marching Out, which was a change in that it featured only 2 instrumental tracks (excluding an intro track primarily consisting of silence), compared to 6 on the last album. However, Marching Out is by no means a bad album. There is still no shortage of soloing on the vocal tracks, and the album is considered a power metal staple from a time when the genre was still just beginning.
Upon the release of his third album, Trilogy, things began to look familiar. Indeed, it had two top notch instrumentals in Crying and Trilogy Suite Op: 5, but the 7 vocal tracks were nothing special.
Malmsteen has now released 14 (14!!!) studio albums, and with the exception of the excellent Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in E Flat Minor Op. 1, they all follow the exact same formula: On the majority of the tracks, Yngwie riffs out an intro. Next, enter generic power metal vocalist. Verse, chorus, Yngwie solo, rinse, repeat… Throw in one or two instrumentals to keep folks happy, and you've got yourself an album.
I certainly won't claim to be the first to notice this trend. After all, he's done it ten times now. In a way, it could be all he's capable of, working exclusively with neoclassical rock stylings and harmonic minor scales. After he poured his heart and soul into his debut album, people demanded more. There's only so much that can be done within Yngwie's style of music, so he spread the good tracks out. Well, it's worked great for prolonging his career, but it's cheating his listeners. We have to search through every release for the one or two solid tracks. Come on, Yngwie.
Buckethead
I am so tired of hearing about this guy. His 30k listeners on last.fm belies just how well-known he is. He is among the most widely known guitarists worldwide, and yet I don't think him fit to be called a guitarist in the first place. He takes the practices of the other guitarists on this list to the next level by actually going entire albums between good tracks. A fine example of a filler album is his 2004 offering The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell. (My, what an inventive name!) You will not find a normal melody anywhere on this disc's 17 tracks. In its place is a combination of aimless, atonal shredding and bizarre, math metalesque riffscape. People are going to tell me I don't get it. Let me beat them to it. I don't get it. Furthermore, I don't want to. I'd be more than happy to leave Buckethead alone if he'd stop getting so much press as a virtuoso guitarist when the majority of his releases don't fit that bill. Such a shame, too; he's as technically skilled as just about anyone.
Here are the numbers. He's released a staggering 21 solo albums. Since 2002, he's averaged over 2 albums per year. Quality. Of the 21, I know three to be decent, melodic guitar driven albums (and even these must be picked through to find the good tracks among the stinkers.): Colma, Electric Tears, and Population Override.
There could be more good tracks or albums in Buckethead's collection that I don't know of. Frankly, with 21 albums and counting, the potential musical reward isn't worth the time and effort that would be required to discover it. On the other hand, if someone were to purchase all 21 albums, that would be a lot of money for Buckethead. Oh wait, that would help him, not me. Never mind.
Paul Gilbert
Paul Gilbert is an interesting one. He started out with Racer X playing a fast-paced brand of 80's metal. With his talent, it was only a matter of time before his legend grew and he was able to form a new group, Mr. Big. This group featured the incomparable Billy Sheehan on bass. With Sheehan and Gilbert, arguably the most technically-gifted players on their respective instruments, in the same band, one would be led to expect groundbreaking music chock full of instrumental pyrotechnics. Instead, Mr. Big was a ho-hum pop rock band. Gilbert's (and Sheehan's) skill took a backseat to the pursuit of a top-40 hit. They soon hit it big with the trite love-ballad To Be With You. And they made money. Lots and lots of money.
To Paul's credit, he eventually left Mr. Big and reformed Racer X. Here, his skills were once again put to good use, although the continued presence of a rather grating vocalist detracted from the overall experience. Racer X was good, but a solo album would have been better. Or so one would have thought…
In fact, Gilbert had released a solo album, 1998's King of Clubs. On it, Paul continued his tradition of completely ignoring his extraordinary gifts to instead produce boring, generic pop-rock. Alright, Paul, we get it. You have eclectic taste in music. Will you please play your guitar now? He wouldn't. He released 5 more albums like it, with a minimum of good guitar playing. If there was a silver-lining in Paul wasting his talent like this, it was that unlike Yngwie Malmsteen, who would hide a solid instrumental track amid the filler on a succession of lackluster albums, Gilbert's solo albums were so abyssmal that they can safely be avoided entirely. Hurrah.
How about a real silver lining? It's that he's gone in the opposite order. He has one entirely instrumental solo album, and it's his most recent. At long last, Get Out Of My Yard is great from start to finish, and gives hope of a future of more releases that showcase Gilbert's one-of-a-kind talent to its full extent once and for all.
Who knows if these guitarists can be changed… But one thing for certain is that we shouldn't be supporting this inferior work. Everyone, stop buying bad albums. (If you simply must hear them, there are other ways of obtaining the music that I'm not necessarily advocating so much as pointing out that they do indeed exist.) Instead, support the little guys that are quietly putting out really quality music. Your music collection will be better for it. Here are:
The Good Guys
(In light of just how long this journal is becoming, I'll refrain from listing every commendable guitarist. For a near-comprehensive list of guitarists both well-known and obscure, I refer you to this journal entry. Anyway, here are a few of the most praiseworthy, who exemplify various traits of proper guitar virtuoso ethics.)
Mattias IA Eklundh
I deliberately mention him first, because he is the model for how to properly balance instrumental and vocal music. The majority of his music is released with the band Freak Kitchen, which features Eklundh on lead vocals and guitar for this three-piece band of rather ambiguous genre classification. I'm not a huge fan of the band, listening mostly for the guitar solos. Fortunately, Mr. Eklundh also has two solo releases, each featuring 20+ entirely instrumental tracks. Everyone else, take note. This is how it's supposed to be done. People who want to listen to a band with vocals can buy Freak Kitchen albums. People who want only guitar can buy his solo albums and get just that.
Andy Timmons
Andy Timmons is a criminally unknown guitarist. (I must admit, I myself only recently discovered him.) His sound is very similar to Joe Satriani's. However, Timmons has significantly more skill with his instrument, which results in more varied and interesting music. While he doesn't necessarily render Satch obsolete, he's just undeniably superior, yet boasts 2.5% as many listeners. This should change.
John Petrucci
I feel he deserves special mention for his brevity. The majority of his career has been spent doing great things with Dream Theater. I probably don't have to tell anyone what a phenomenal guitarist he is. He has had only one solo release, Suspended Animation, though he's almost certainly capable of more. Still, I must give him praise. Instead of pumping out bunches of filler-laced CD's, he spent a great deal of time writing music for one, and it shows. The album is entirely instrumental and entirely fantastic throughout its generous hourlong running time. Thanks John, for doing it the right way. As a side note, Kiko Loureiro would have been a more obscure, but equally effective example here. Buy his album too.
Jason Becker
He could have been the greatest. As it was, he came close. The dude's got ALS, he needs all the money he can get. Buy Perpetual Burn, and grab both of Cacophony's releases while you're at it. They're great.
Marty Friedman
Marty gets the final good guy shout out for not becoming lazy after he hit it big. He put out two albums alongside Becker in Cacophony, as well a top-notch solo album, Dragon's Kiss. This was enough to get him into Megadeth. However, he's continued putting out solo albums, 5 to date. They are extremely varied, and all worth picking up.
So now you know which artists to boycott and some to support. I'd really appreciate some feedback on this. Flame if you must, but before you do, keep in mind that even if I'm criticizing these guitarists, they are all currently among my top 50 artists overall. I love what they do, but I also know what they're capable of and feel cheated when they give me something less.