Joe Satriani, a master of his instrument and a brilliant artist. His newest release, What happens next, is laid back and full of good beats.

I won’t do a full analysis of the album, but overall it is completely relaxed and it feels like Joe is now so far into his instrument that anything sounds decent. It is supposed to be high energy, but some of the tracks are full of emotion and awesome solos as usual.

I do believe the best tracks of the album are energy, thunder high on the mountain, headrush, righteous, what happens next and invisible. Each delivers a great back beat with awesome solo notes thrown in, and the collaboration with Chad Smith and Glenn Hughes was a good idea. The songs seem to be housing a mystical and enlightening backdrop to them, they make you feel alive, they make you relax and calm and bring back memories of previous albums. I won’t go into detail but throughout the album you can hear sounds and styles previously released in other songs.

Unlike it’s predecessor, Shockwave Supernova, this album doesn’t provide a listener with what they want, a developing sound, instead the songs rely on repetitive beats that are played over. It does go into new more adventurous effect usage though, but ultimately it kind of makes it feel a little like a new band trying new ideas. If more time was given to them, perhaps they could have come across as not so annoying, as is the case in Catbot.

If you are a fan like I am, then of course listen. I won’t stop listening because I dislike certain sounds, the originality is there in small segments.

Overall: 3/5