Steve Vai made his debut 25 years ago as Frank Zappa’s “stunt guitarist,” after playing with Joe Satriani in high school and attending the Berklee School of Music. He has been praised as one of the best guitarists of all time and his solo work is virtually required listening for any aspiring player. His latest effort, “Real Illusions: Reflections,” is a spiritual concept album described as “the first part of a multilayered menagerie of vignettes based on the amplified mental exaggerations of a truth-seeking madman who sees the world … Oh, nevermind.”
Aside from Vai, the album also features the legendary Billy Sheehan on bass and a very solid showing from Jeremy Colson on drums, with occasional percussion from Gregg Bissonette, who has played with Satriani and Santana, among others. The band is nothing short of amazing, but as Vai, Sheehan and Bissonette proved when they played for David Lee Roth, an amazing band doesn’t always record good music.
Luckily, Vai knows how to do more than shred; he’s also an excellent songwriter. This is especially good news for those who are looking to hear something more interesting than guitar noodling. He is more concerned with melody than showing off his skill, and these songs are evidence of that.
The album is written as a “rock fable,” and the story is explained in the liner notes, which is nice, since it would be hard to figure it out otherwise – only four of the songs have vocals. Reading the notes is optional, as the tracks hold up without the story, but it’s nice to have them, as they give some insight on what Vai was attempting to do with the album.
The opening track, “Building the Church,” sounds a lot like Vai trying to do Satriani’s “Why,” but this isn’t a big problem. They’re different enough that Vai can make the song his own; it proves to be an excellent, heavy opener with tons of guitar shredding. It gives way to “Dying For Your Love,” an electronics-laden funeral march featuring Vai’s vocals. His voice isn’t amazing, but he sticks with what he can do, and the lyrics are good enough. The guitar parts are tastefully restrained, but there’s still enough of a solo to make you remember whose name is on the cover.
“Glorious” is an up-tempo rock song that shows off Vai’s skill as producer, with rich layers of guitar and electronic strings throughout. “K’m-Pee-Du-Wee” takes the opposite route, featuring a single guitar, bass and drums. Vai is able to take advantage of these extremes, and both tracks highlight the amount of attention he gives to writing good songs, as opposed to simply playing his guitar.
One of the album’s standout tracks, “Firewall,” is a funk-inspired rocker, with horns and all. Vai’s vocals are much better suited to this style – he takes the opportunity to do some shouting, and his mouth percussion comes as a big surprise – and the background vocals are a nice addition. The shredded guitar solo is unnecessary, but it fits the song and keeps those who bought the album for the guitar parts happy. The next track, “Freak Show Excess,” is an aptly-named, prog-inspired track showcasing Steve’s guitar acrobatics. The fifty second guitar solo gets a bit annoying, prompting even Vai to say, “alright, that’s enough of that nonsense,” but looking at the title, you can’t blame him for showing off a bit.
“Lotus Feet,” the album’s other pleasant surprise, is a soulful guitar ballad, as are all seventh songs on Steve Vai albums. For this one, though, Vai ditches the studio band and instead records live with the Metropole Orkest. He interacts beautifully with them, and the result is a unique blend of Vai’s guitar rock and their jazz and pop orchestral stylings.
“Yai Yai,” one of the album’s stranger offerings, shows off some talk box work from Vai that would make Frampton blush with shame, with only an electronic metronome sound keeping time. It’s interesting and fun to listen to, but it doesn’t have quite the same power that the other tracks have. “Midway Creatures” makes up for the previous song’s lack of power with its thundering intro and plentiful guitar solos, and the reintroduction of the band is welcome after nine minutes without them.
The second to last track is called “I’m Your Secrets,” and Colson and Bissonette play percussion for Vai, who switches to an acoustic for this song. His vocals sound surprisingly good here, although the lyrics still aren’t great and the whispered “cause I’m your secrets” borders on sounding silly. Vai’s work on the acoustic is amazing, and this comes off as one of the more musically interesting tracks on “Reflections” as a result.
The epic finale, an eight minute track called “Underneath It All,” features Vai’s wife, Pia, on harp – the liner notes specify that this is “the big kind with strings,” in case their was any confusion – and his son, Fire, gets a speaking part. Steve’s vocal parts on this song aren’t as good as they were on the previous track, but his vocals have never been the main event anyway. The guitar parts are excellent and tasteful, and he switches between an electric and acoustic throughout the song. The spoken parts are supposed to be confessional, but they aren’t very convincing. If nothing else, you at least get to hear Fire Vai speak, and the album never claimed that spoken word was its strong suit.
Overall, “Real Illusions: Reflections” is exactly what a Steve Vai album should be: technically dazzling and innovative but, most importantly, interesting and complete. He manages to create a solo guitar record that might be of interest to people other than guitarists, and in the end, even most guitarists would rather listen to eleven great songs than an hour of obscure scale regurgitation and showboating. Thankfully, Mr. Vai has once again given us the former.