Vai, Steve - Real Illusions: Reflections


Year of Release: 2005
Label: Epic Records/Red Ink
Catalog Number: n/a
Format: CD
Total Time: 52:32:00

Interesting title? Real Illusions: Reflections. Leave it to Steve Vai's intellectual musical journeys to make you start thinking before you pop the CD in and give it a listen. Vai certainly is and always has been the thinking man's guitar player. Once again, the incredible Vai offers a story behind the music with outstanding guitar virtuoso and instrumental tracks that will blow your mind and leave your jaw on the floor.

?Dying For Your Love? and ?Glorious? are superb instrumental rockers giving the recording some traction at the beginning and it continues to take shape with the outrageous ?Lotus Feet? and the hellfire ?Yai Yai.? The tracks that Vai sings on are quite impressive as well, such as the pumped up rocker ?Firewall? and the acoustically warm ?I'm Your Secrets.? It is hard to picture him as a great vocalist but his does a fine job for someone that has built his reputation on the fireworks of guitar improvisation. He is light years ahead of the David Lee Roth days now, that was a brief playground to dabble in before he got serious, as anyone that has followed his career knows. Band mates like Tony MacAlpine (guitar, keys and vox) and Billy Sheehan (bass) keep pace with Vai nicely. There is a reason that he chooses such high caliber accompaniment. He has to have the best because he is the best.

As the title suggests, our illusions are but a reflection of ourselves, lending credence to the thought that whatever is real in your own mind eventually becomes a reality in life in some form. I really like the way Vai comes up with a concept for an album then follows through with thought provoking lyrics and out of this world six-string bending. The man is an enigma, no doubt about it. There are few beings on the planet that can play an instrument like him and certainly legions of worshipers that wish they could play half as good.

Vai has not only become a legend through his music he is a smart business man in control of his career while attracting some of the best like minded talent out there to his label Favored Nations. He is the complete musician, something everyone strives to attain. This is a great album by one of the best so do not miss it for the world.


Tracklisting:
Building The Church (4:58) / Dying For Your Love (4:51) / Glorious (4:35) / K'm-Pee-Du-Wee (3:59) / Firewall (4:19) / Freak Show Excess (6:52) / Lotus Feet (6:44) / Yai Yai (2:37) / Midway Creatures (3:42) / I'm Your Secrets (4:26) / Under It All (8:08)

Musicians:
Steve Vai - guitars, vocals
Billy Sheehan - bass
Jeremy Colson - drums and other things you hit
Tony MacAlpine - keyboards, guitar and vocals
Dave Weiner - rhythm guitar, electric sitar and acoustic-electric guitar

Discography:
Frank Zappa - Tinseltown Rebellion (1981/1990)
Frank Zappa - You Are What You Is (1981/1990)
Frank Zappa - Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar (1981/1986)
Frank Zappa - Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch (1982)
Lisa Popeil - Lisa Popeil (1983)
Frank Zappa - The Man From Utopia (1983)
Frank Zappa - Them Or Us (1984)
Flex-able (1984)
Flex-Able Leftovers (ep) (1984/1998*)
Frank Zappa - Thing Fish (1984/1986)
Heresy - At The Door (1985)
Alcatrazz - Disturbing The Peace (1985/2002)
Public Imagine Limited - Album/Cassette/Compact Disc (1985)
Frank Zappa - Meets The Mothers Of Prevention (1985)
Bob Harris - The Great Nostalgia (1986)
Shankar/Caroline - The Epidemics
David Lee Roth - Eat 'Em And Smile (1986)
David Lee Roth - Sonrisa Salvaje (1986)
Randy Coven - Funk Me Tender (1986)
Western Vacation - Western Vacation (1986)
Frank Zappa - Jazz From Hell (1986)
Dudes OST (1987)
Frank Zappa - Guitar (1988)
David Lee Roth - Skyscraper (1988)
Frank Zappa - You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol 1. (1988)
Various - Guitar's Practicing Musicians (1989)
Frank Zappa - You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 3 (1989)
Whitesnake - Slip Of The Tongue (1989)
Rebecca - The Best Of Dreams (1990)
Passion & Warfare (1990)
Alice Cooper - Hey Stoopid (1991)
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey OST (1991)
Frank Zappa - As An Am (1991)
Encino Man OST (1991)
Frank Zappa - You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 4 (1992)
Frank Zappa - You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 5 (1992)
Frank Zappa - You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 6 (1992)
Various - Zappa's Universe (1993)
Sex And Religion (1993)
PCU OST (1993)
Whitesnake - Greatest Hits (1995)
Alien Love Secrets (1995)
Various - In From The Storm (1995)
Frank Zappa - Strictly Commercial (1995)
Various - The Songs OF West Side Story (1996)
Fire Garden (1996)
Wild Style - Cryin' (1996)
G3 Live In Concert (1997)
Various - Merry Axemas: A Guitar Christmas (1997)
Munetaka Higuchi w/Dream Castle - Free World (1997)
Frank Zappa - Have I Offended Someone? (1997)
Various - Angelica (1997)
David Lee Roth - The Best (1997)
Gregg Bissonette - Gregg Bissonette (1998)
Frank Zappa - Cheep Thrills (1998)
Al Di Meola - The Infinite Desire (1998)
Various - Merry Axemas, Vol. 2: More Guitars For Christmas (1998)
The Seventh Song - Steve Vai Archives Vol. 1 (1999)
Various - Radio Disney Kid Jams (1999)
Thana Harris - Thanatopsis (1999)
Frank Zappa - Son Of Cheep Thrills (1999)
The Ultra Zone (1999)
Joe Jackson - Symphony No. 1 (1999)
Gregg Bissonette - Submarine (2000)
Alive In An Ultra World (2001)
Billy Sheehan - Compression (2001)
Ghosts Of Mars OST (2001)
The Secret Jewel Box (2001)
Various - Roland Guitar Masters (2002)
The Elusive Light and Sound, Vol. 1 (2002)
Various - Guitars For Freedom (2002)
Mystery Tracks Archives, Vol 3. (2003)
The Infinite Steve Vai: An Anthology (2003)
Archives: Vol 4 (2005)
Real Illusions: Reflections (2005)
Live Album (2007)
Sound Theories: Vols. 1-2 (2007)
Original Album Classics (2008)
Naked Tracks Vol 1-5 (Guitar Center) (2009)
Where The Wild Things Are (2009)
Playlist: The Very Best Of Steve Vai (2010)
Where The Other Wild Things Are: Live In Minneapolis (2010)
Western Vacation (2010)

Alien Love Secrets (VID) (1997)
Live At The Astoria In London (2003) (DVD)
Visual Sound Theories (DVD) (2007)
Where The Wild Things Are (DVD/BR) (2009)

* reissue w/bonus

Genre: Rock

Origin US

Added: May 16th 2005
Reviewer: Keith "Muzikman" Hannaleck
Score:
Artist website: www.vai.com
Hits: 2831
Language: english

  

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