Passion and Warfare (©1990 Relativity)

The Songs: Liberty / Erotic Nightmares/ The Animal / Answers / The Riddle / Ballerina 12 24 / For the Love of God / The Audience is Listening / I Would Love To / Blue Powder / Greasy Kid's Stuff / Alien Water Kiss / Sisters / Love Secrets

This is the first album I got of Steve's music. It has some fine moments, as well as a few pretty unlistenable tracks. I've never met the man, but he must have fourteen or fifteen fingers. It's almost freaky how the guy can play. At times it's almost distracting, faster isn't always better, but he does show a flair for some good hooks. I still crack up when I listen to The Audience is Listening.

Sex and Religion (©1993 Relativity)

The Songs: An Earth Dweller's Return / Here & Now / In My Dreams With You / Still My Bleeding Heart / Sex & Religion Dirty Black Hole / Touching Tongues / State Of Grace / Survive / Pig / The Road To Mt. Calvary / Down Deep Into The Pain / Rescue Me Or Bury Me

I'm not sure whether I really like this album, or think it's trash. The album is real mixed bag. This time around Steve taps into the pipes of Devin Townsend, and man can this kid ever sing. He's amazing. Songs like In My Dreams With You, Still My Beating Heart, and others are brilliant. But then there are some truly wicked (read: bad) pieces of "art" here. I know they are technically unplayable to 99% of the guitarists out there, and Steve seems to need to remind people that as a note shredder he's about the best there is. So every so often I pop this in, and continue my love hate relationship with this CD.

Alien Love Secrets (©1995 Relativity)

The Songs: Bad Horsie / Juice / Die To Live / The Boy From Seattle / Ya-Yo Gakk / Kill The Guy With The Ball - The God Eaters / Tender Surrender

I'll admit to liking some of the artistic hubris that Mister Vai produces. Actually I like a lot of what he produces. This CD which clocks in at an astounding 33 plus minutes. The playing is nothing short of amazing, and it's odd how fast amazing becomes stale. The ending of Juice sums it up best: "Shut up we know you can play ..." If you like instrumental rock that has some melodic content, this is pretty good. Some of Steve's stuff is pretty far out there, and on the whole this effort is enjoyable.

Fire Garden (©1996 Relativity)

The Songs: 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

I think this is about the best Vai album so far. Divided into two phases. Phase one is the instrumental part, and phase two features the song portion. Steve has a passable voice, and while the vocal songs on this album are good, the instrumental efforts are astounding. There really aren't many moments of unlistenable pain either. A great effort. This is the effort that Devin should have been a part of. Oh well. A very good album.

The Ultra Zone (©1999 Epic)

The songs: Blood & Tears / The Ultra Zone / Oooo / Frank / Jibboom / Voodoo Acid / Windows to the Soul / The Silent Within / I'll Be Around / Lucky Charms / Fever Dream / Here I Am / Asian Sky

... and here we go again. Apparently Steve was getting too close to releasing accessible music - so someone said to him "Get a hold of yourself, remember who you are and play that weird shit." Which pretty much sums up The Ultra Zone.

As you would expect there are a handful of songs that made me go "ooh and ah" and a few that made me go "ack." The ones with the smurfy backing vocals were something to behold.

Still this is a Vai album, and you expect this sort of thing. The good songs make it worthwhile. If it really bugged me so much I'd quit buying his stuff.

Reviewed December 9, 2001

The Seventh Song (©2000 Epic)

The songs: For The Love Of God / Touching Tongues / Windows to the Soul / Burnin' Down the Mountain / Tender Surrender / Hand on Heart / Melissa's Garden / Call It Sleep / Christmas Time Is Here / The Wall Of Light / Boston Rain Melody

Gee look at this. Steve releases an album compiling the 7th songs from his various albums. As Steve says the 7th songs tend to fall into his "sweet spot" and it's true. For the most part this is a pretty good collection, and the new songs are fun too. By good, it means that the songs are listenable, and have some melody. He still shreds like Wolverine on a bad bay, but it's not out of place.

Since it's Christmas time as I listen to this, I especially liked Christmas Time Is Here - it has snippets from Charlie Brown's Christmas special.

Reviewed December 9, 2001