Real Illusions [Import]

1. Building The Church

2. Dying For Your Love

3. Glorious

4. K'm- Pee - Du - Qwee

5. Firewall

6. Freak Show Excess

7. Lotus Feet

8. Yai Yai

9. Midway Creatures

10. I'm Your Secrets

11. Under It All

Tracks:

Building The Church
Dying For Your Love
Glorious
K'm-Pee-Du-Wee
Firewall
Freak Show Excess
Lotus Feet
Yai Yai
Midway Creatures
I'm Your Secrets
Under It All

Customer Reviews:

NOT AS BAD AS SOME SAY..........2007-04-30

Let's get one thing straight: Each artist have a peak on its career,one album or series of albums that put them in the top of the lists (personal and professional ones)

Led Zeppelin have a career based on awesome,solid albums. Metallica almost made it: they put out terrible albums such as "St.Anger" and destroyed their credibility.Joe Satriani has put out things like "Is there love in Space?" that pale in comparison with other albums.

You can't always be Led Zeppelin. Metallica has "The Black Album". Satch has "Surfing". Truth is that you can't reach some levels of creativity every time.I'm not an artist, but I can understand that they are not divine. They CAN FAIL.

Cut to the chase: This is not "Passion and warfare".Not even "Fire Garden" (another favorite of mine).But it represents a well-known facet of Steve: weirdness.This is his most "Zappesque" album of all time. And this is a compliment.I love Frank Zappa,and Steve is the 1st admitting that his playing is wildly influenced by the moustached genius.

Real Illusions is a "kind" of "conceptual album".Yes, something like "The Wall" or "The lamb lies down on Broadway".But it's more disjointed and surreal,kind of a fever dream.It's a story of a voyager that founds a town in another dimension. Very weird!

The music.

If you like the "regular Steve sound" listen carefully to songs like "Building the church" (a new classic), "Midnight creatures" (acrobatics on the fret), "Km-Pee-Du-Wee" or the wonderful "Lotus Feet" (a song recorded with a orchestra in Holland-Those shows will be available on CD and on DVD soon!)

"I'm your secrets" remind me a lot of "Burning up the mountain",it's like the latter with lyrics.But is a terrific, haunting song.It's melody can elevate your soul almost inmediately.

"Under it all" is the final song, with plenty of references of the storyline.It's a grand finale, I liked it a lot.

Keep in mind that songs like "Glorious" or "Yai Yai"(yes,that's really guitar,it's all about pedals) are WEIRD.But,as some reviewer said before me,"Steve is weird and he'll always be".That's the main trait of his personality.If you don't like it go listen to Green Day and their "down to earth" sound.

In essence,this is not a classic, nor the hideous album some may claim.It's a beautiful album,listen to it,carefully.I repeat, this is not a Green Day record. I love this CD.Give it a try.

Oh,for those who claim that Steve has not a good voice, I'll tell you something about emotion and feeling.Has Ozzy a good voice technically speaking? Or Mike Jagger? Or even Johnny Rotten? You really like those singers, don't you? Listen carefully and try to understand.

Highly recommended.......2007-04-29

I am the proud owner of every studio cd Mr. Vai has ever released and I can honestly say that this may be my favorite. Overall the guitar playing is amazing as always. Steve has total command over not just his speed, like some of the other "shredders" he's often classified with, but the perfect tone and grace of every note he plays, no matter how fast or slow.
The whole "concept" of this concept album is kind of interesting, although somewhat difficult to follow. but it's cool how the whole album, as you follow it, sticks with a mood and gradually takes you down this strange musical path. His song-writing on this album is fantastic and very melodic.

Building the Church starts with an insane 2-handed tapping intro in a style I'd never really heard before, then continues into a very well written melody that, to me, never gets old.

Dying For Your Love is a vocal song, without much flashy guitar. One of the weaker songs, in my opinion, but kind of pleasant.

Glorious is quite cool. The lead guitar line is played on a fretless guitar with a wah-pedal. Kinda sounds like a cat that can really sing. A nice solo in the middle of this one too.

K'm-pee-du-wee is a slow yet very tender ballady song that was meant to sound like a guitar singing a lullaby. beautiful guitar phrasing in this one.

Firewall was another vocal song, which, again, is not my favorite side of Steve. But it's tolerable and the solo, makes it worth it.

Freak Show Excess speaks for itself. It's kind of a fun song and the outro solo is insane-absolutely insane.

Lotus Feet is done with just Steve and an orchestra. Steve really uses the guitar as his voice in this song. You can almost hear it speaking, rather than playing.

Yai Yai is interesting, kinda weird. Completely done with the "yah-yah" feature.

I'm Your Secrets is all acoustic and although Steve sings in this one too, I find it quite lovely. The accoustic melody is really captivating.

Under It All is the most interesting if you're following the storyline of the cd. It has all the characters making little speeches and like the rest of the cd, the melody of the song itself is rather captivating.

Overall, like I said, it's not his flashiest playing, but it's definitely enough that guitar players will be happy. I consider it his most melodic song writing he's ever done. And yes; Steve is weird. He's always been weird, he'll always be weird. If you like his weirdness, you will love this cd. Enjoy, friends.

Diverse, exciting, innovative.......2007-01-17

The negative reviews here are a sad commentary on the extent to which most people want an artist to go on doing whatever he did before. Vai is one of those rare musicians who is truly versatile. After a crowdpleasing opening track (very stereotypically metal) this compilation explores many moods and directions; there's even a quasi-Zappa solo. Vai does have a slight tendency to be facile, but there are substantial compositions on this album. It's a very fine and thoughtful piece of work.

I'll wait..........2006-12-11

Simply put, steve isn't the best singer on the music scene, although at a concert his singing seems to blends in well with the environment, but as far as recordings go he should stick to instrumental. Vai is one of my favourite musicians, but this album, for me just isn't worth listening to in my opinion except for maybe two tracks.
Other than that the man is an absolutely amazing guitarist and the majority of his work is timeless.

Steve, please stop singing!.......2006-09-27

I am like the rest of most people in here. I believe Steve Vai is as talented as any guitar player ever, ever! Nobody shreds faster or can get the same sounds out of an Ibanez. HOWEVER, he has 1/10 the musical intelligence of Joe Satriani. I can listen to Satriani anytime, each album is unique and exciting. However, with Vai, you get these hit and miss CDs with some creative playing and some awful heavy metal tracks featuring terrible singing. Here is hoping that Steve gets some direction, so his musical genius can be recorded for the ages.

Average customer rating:

Steve Vai - 'Real Illusions: Reflections' (Red Ink)

Real Illusions: Reflections

ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000KQFCV6
Release Date: 2005-02-22

Album Description

Steve Vai's first new solo album in nearly five years, Real Illusions: Reflections, which features eleven highly anticipated tracks by Vai. The first volume of a three part 'concept trilogy' features the legendary guitar virtuoso in fine form.

Customer Reviews:

Steve Vai - 'Real Illusions: Reflections' (Red Ink).......2007-02-19

Steve Vai's most recent effort. I, personally wasn't as impressed as I was with, say his 'Sex And Religon' or 'Fire Garden' titles. So-so guitar virtuoso guitar-rock. Better cuts here include the adventurous "Glorious", "Freak Show Excess" and the awesome eight-minute rocker "Under It All". Notice that fellow guitar virtuoso (?) Tony MacAlpine lends a hand on this record, by providing some guitar, keyboards and vocals. Not sure which tracks he shows up on. Vai apparently had plenty of others helping him to record 'Real Illusions:Reflections'. Die-hards will get more out of this CD than most casual fans.

Average customer rating:

Let's hear more from these artists

The Retelling of Dreams
The Sound of Three Hands
Manufacturer: Real Illusions
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Classical | Indie Music | Stores | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0001MIGCQ
Release Date: 2004-02-23

Tracks:

The World is a Flower in Space
Windows on the Night
Suffering is One Very Long Moment
God's Shower
Far Off the Dark Heavens are Dusted with Light
And Kashyapa Smiled
Peace Valley
Insouciance
Foreign Movie
All the Absent I love
A Brief Fluttering
Bel Notturno
It Might Have Been a Music Box
You are Loved
And Everything Glittered
A Child's Story
Aubade
Epilogue

Album Description

Genaro, using both hands, and Sam his left hand alone, have formed the unique musical team "The Sound of Three Hands". The keyboard duo draws not only upon their consummate pianistic skills (both Juilliard-trained pianists have enjoyed succesfull concert careers here in the US and in the Middle East and Africa), but also upon their creativity as composers - all of the music on the CD was jointly composed by the two artists. The duo uses acoustic pianos, digital pianos and synthesizers to realize their creative ideas as musical colorists and storytellers. "The Retelling of Dreams" is a collection of 18 brief tableaux evoking the emotional states associated with dreams. The title refers to dreams in sleep, as well as wishes, visions and fantasies. The music is rich in melody, sensuous in sound, tonal and unabashedly lush.

Customer Reviews:

Let's hear more from these artists.......2004-10-04

The Retelling of Dreams is the most mesmerizing music I have heard in a very long time. I hope more cds will be coming along shortly.

If not for the illusions nothing would be real

Average customer rating:

If not for the illusions nothing would be real
All Original--All the Time
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000P8UD6I

Average customer rating:

Illusions
Real Cool Killers
Manufacturer: Survi
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B00004NK4N
Release Date: 1994-06-20

Average customer rating:

Real Illusions: Reflections
Steve Vai
Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Jazz Fusion | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Progressive Metal | Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock Guitarists | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

Hard Rock | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0006TPHIA
Release Date: 2005-02-21

Tracks:

Building the Church
Dying for Your Love
Glorious
K'm-Pee-Du-Wee
Firewall
Freak Show Excess
Lotus Feet [Live]
Yai Yai
Midway Creatures
I'm Your Secrets
Under It All

Rock Music:

Rock Music