Fire Garden

Artist: Steve Vai
Label: Sony
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 074646777626
EAN: 0074646777626
ASIN: B000002BP5

Release Date: 1996-09-17

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Tracks:

There's A Fire In The House
The Crying Machine
Dyin' Day
Whookam
Blowfish
The Mysterious Murder Of Christian Tiera's Lover
Hand On Heart
Bangkok
Fire Garden Suite: Bull Whip/Pusa Road/Angel Food/Taurus Bulba
Deepness
Little Alligator
All About Eve
Aching Hunger
Brother
Damn You
When I Was A Little Boy
Genocide
Warm Regards

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Customer Reviews:

Another hit and miss recording from Mr. Vai.......2006-10-05

The first disc is quite good, a lot of diverse instrumentals. Vai mixes some slow numbers with some faster ones, but the overall theme is mellow. The second disc sounds like a recording from a 1980s hair band. I can appreciate that Vai is an intelligent man and desires to communicate with his audience, but words are not necessary to do this, they really aren't. Satriani, Beck and Schencker have always been at their best when they just let the guitar do their talking. Mr. Vai is also at his best when he just lets the Ibanez speak for him. ***** for the first disc and * for the seond disc, I curbed up the final score for a ***.

More of the same and something new. Between 3 and 4 stars........2006-07-21

There are a few things that have always held Steve Vai back. One is the fact that his albums are almost totally instrumental and the other has been his experimentalish which has rarely been easy listening, more a catalogue of awesome skills. This album addresses both issues with some degree of success yet should also keep his more purist fans happy.

The melodies in the first two tracks are a good indication of the direction Vai is playing with, both ride motifs that last the whole song through, which means they actually come across as songs rather than an insanely talented dude doing a soundcheck, playing snippets of unconnected music.

in fact if you can sample the first two tracks you really should as they will let you know if this album is for you as they are so indicative of much of this album. Of course there are also the weird little interludes (I hesitate to call them songs) that Vai has been playing around with for many years now. So this album can be said to address the first problem with much of his product.

The second issue I mentioned above is the lack of vocals. Therefore the lack of connectivity with an audience. On this album there are a number of tunes, mostly in the latter half of the record, that have lyrics. Rassuringly these lyrics seem to follow the same Steve Vai pattern of strange introspection and quirkiness. None of these songs are going to end world poverty or anything, but they do make a change to the normal Vai album. Alas it would appear that he has chosen not to add these songs to his live set - having seen him live in 2005 he only played two songs with lyrics during the whole gig. Which is a shame as the entertainment value and human connection factor would of been vastly improved.

Still, for Vai fans this is probably an essential release given that on this album he's stepped outside the normal bounds for this genre and that's a hard and a brave thing to do. And nifty cover art too.

More Is Less.......2006-07-19

Ho hum. Another bombastic affair from Mr.Vai. How can a guy with so much talent have such bad taste? I find this cd unbearable to listen to. It's overproduced freeze dried sound is a major turn off. If you're an 80s hair band fan then this is the album for you. I'll stick with my Mike Keneally cds.

Amazing.....................2006-04-17

An amazing work by an amazing musician. A lot of people pigeonhole Steve Vai into being just another guitarist, a relic of the shred-happy '80s. But take another listen. Forget his stints in Alcatrazz and Whitesnake, forget that ridiculous triple-necked heart guitar that backed David Lee Roth, and listen to Vai's own music, made on his own terms. Yes, he is an incredibly talented guitarist, but he's also much more, a true modern-day composer. No matter how off-the-wall his songs seem, there's an amazing musical quality and deep spirituality that underscores every note in his truly amazing body of work. As for Fire Garden, it can't be adequately explained in a short review. The first phase is pure magic, especially the Fire Garden Suite. His lyrics are a little corny in some of the tracks in phase 2, but his voice, while not the most beautiful in the world, fits every song perfectly. In closing, this is an amazing album in both its scope and its execution, giving the listener a glimpse at the many sides of Steve Vai, the man. A definite must-have; I can't recommend it highly enough.

Stand in awe.......2005-11-08

This is a wonderful album. So much melody, so many twists and turns, so much fun.
If you're not already in love with this album, then I recommend for starters Track 7, Hand On Heart, and Track 18, Warm Regards. Play these three times in a row (at high volume, it should be obvious), and then you'll be dying to hear the rest of the album.
There's hardly anything detractive to say about Fire Garden. Hm, let's try hard: Well, Blowfish is a bit too distorted for my taste. Initially I found Little Alligator and All About Eve too grungy, but now I'm also fond of them. Whookam and the weenie story are funny for about ten runs; now I skip them, but that's ok.
Steve Vai is not a natural born singer like Robert Plant and Bono, but he's worked a lot on it (like with everything else he does, let's not forget), and he's become really good. (I just don't understand his detractors on this point.) I couldn't imagine anybody else singing on Brother (and not at all on his spellbinding Dying For Your Love on the album Real Illusions: Reflections).
What he does with his guitar is just beyond words.
The Crying Machine is a killer (as several other reviewers have noted).
He also has other excellent musicians playing along on particularly drums (and I guess John Kalodner does his job well again, whatever it is).
Listen for a while, and then stand in awe!

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