my review<\/a> some time ago here wasn\u2019t nearly as stellar), and this latest effort felt like it was completely uncommercial. Needless to say, I lost interest in it fairly quickly.<\/p>\nFast forward the clock by nearly 30 years\u2014Jesus, has it really been that<\/i> long?!? \u2014and I dusted this one off with fresh ears. And, all I can say about my 22-year-old self was\u2026 well, that guy didn\u2019t know what he was talking about. (Funny, many long-time readers of this site have said the same thing about me.)<\/p>\n
To start: yes, the album is definitely not commercial. And, in retrospect, it\u2019s a damn good thing that this was the case. John Popper and crew had the freedom to take their music in whatever direction they wanted to, knowing the diehard fans would gladly come along for the ride.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not that the ride is flawless; the opening track \u201cTrina Magna\u201d is a bit of a jumble, and it often doesn\u2019t quite feel like the group knows where they want this one to go. One minute, it\u2019s a lightly bouncy pop tune; the next minute, it\u2019s pseudo-funky psychedelia.<\/p>\n
Ah, but this was just the group clearing out the cobwebs. Starting with the following track, \u201cLove And Greed,\u201d the band throws down the throttle and lets the jams flow. The stunning guitar work of Chan Kinchla layered over Popper\u2019s orgasmic harmonica playing and Bobby Sheehan\u2019s bass lines, completely sells this one, and lets the listener know this is the Blues Traveler they\u2019ve come to love.<\/p>\n
But Save His Soul<\/i> does one thing differently than its predecessor: it takes the longer tracks (which would be anything over five minutes this time around) and makes every single note matter. Songs like \u201cWhoops\u201d and \u201cConquer Me\u201d all suggest a band finally coming into its own\u2014though they hardly suggest that this was a group who would experience superstardom just one album later. If anything, this was the album that captured the maturing of Blues Traveler.<\/p>\n
In fact, songs like \u201cLetter From A Friend\u201d and \u201cLove Of My Life\u201d serve as concrete proof of that growth, at least in terms of songwriting and overall presentation. (It would be fruitless to say the musicianship had grown, as all four members were already proficient at their respective crafts.)<\/p>\n
If Save His Soul<\/i> has any one downfall for it, it\u2019s just that the overall feeling of the disc doesn\u2019t stay with the listener. There are those albums which, as soon as one is done listening to them, you can\u2019t wait to hear it again. This disc is pleasant enough, and is definitely made for repeat airings, but doesn\u2019t necessarily pull at the listener, begging for another spin on the ol\u2019 Victrola.<\/p>\n
Save His Soul<\/i> was the natural progression for Blues Traveler, and remains a hidden gem in their collection. Is it a perfect disc? No. But it\u2019s damned good\u2026 and that\u2019s saying something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5722],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-46386","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-blues-traveler","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51900,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46386\/revisions\/51900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46386"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46386"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}