Grasshopper

@Fusillo: once again, thank you for the truly valuable suggestion. It's true that, enchanted by "Caminhos", I would have arrived at this sooner or later, but your advice hastened this discovery. When it comes to minor differences, personal tastes come into play; we are always at levels of excellence, a solid 5. "O primeiro canto" seems slightly richer to me, in quantitative terms. Regarding Loreena McKennitt, I believe she is for Celtic music what Dulce Pontes is for Portuguese music, in the sense that her approach to tradition is open to influences from all over the world, and therefore I address the question saying that I don't understand how you might not like her. It must be a purely subjective matter of tastes: personally, Celtic and Celtic-like music, including the more artificial and (here on Debaser) often criticized Enya, falls within my obsessions, but I don't expect that to hold true for you. As for the link, I tried: I entered the review's email address in the "URL" box, but then I don’t know what happened. Besides, even the samples, which I particularly cared about, were only working on Friday for numbers 1, 3, 7, and 8 (respectively "Alma guerreira", "Tirioni", "Velha Chica", "Suite da Terra"). The others were completely silent. I hope the capable Dwarfs, who I’ve already bothered quite a bit with these samples, managed to sort it out.

As anyone who has read my reviewer profile knows, from Friday afternoon to Sunday evening (and let's say, more generally, outside of office hours), I live guiltlessly far from debaser. It's nice to come back and find all these compliments, some even exaggerated (Bonny91, you make me blush, and I’m already rosy by nature…). Even if with a certain delay, I will address the requested clarifications.

Thank you for the advice, which I followed completely and to the letter, up until the review (released today). Probably the best tip I've ever had on Debaser. If possible, for me "O primeiro canto" is just a tad better than this one. But we’re close, still in the 5 abundant zone.

The uselessness of Debaser compared to any Google search? I'd tread carefully: it's true that on other sites you can definitely find more data and more detailed news, but here on Debaser, once you sift through the load of useless reviews from fans without a shred of objectivity, perhaps on groups that have already been discussed to nausea, you can find a rather rare commodity elsewhere, namely impressions of an album, the immediate feelings it conveys. As far as I'm concerned, I thank Debaser for introducing me to a large number of artists that I would have otherwise overlooked, because without the push from the positive impressions of those who had already listened to them, I wouldn't have bothered to do a detailed Google search on the same artists. This applies both to what was worth knowing and to what has instead been wise to avoid, and so, no matter how much you may dislike it, even your critiques, which are often well done and quite funny (much more so from the old Punisher compared to the more cocky Lestobang), have a certain utility, in my opinion.

Don't thank me too much... It's true that you and REM are one and the same, but I was defending them more than you, especially since it's not the first time I've seen them brutally criticized and for no reason on this site. Now we had to deal with this so-called Scaruffi...

Why is it that if Santana has recently lost his reputation, it's automatic to trash his early albums, which are of an entirely different level? And why, if a review is modest, as in fact this one is, must the reviewed album also be necessarily torn apart, or vice versa? Questions that will never find answers. In the meantime, let's vote.

What a beautiful and heated discussion... for a while, I believed that the true, one and only, inimitable Piero Scaruffi had descended among us mortals to bestow upon us his immense musical culture, until I read "quà in California" with the accent, and then I smelled a rat. With his countless degrees and undeniable culture, the real Scaruffi would never write such a blunder. Anyway, this joker, whoever he is, imitates him very well; he really captures that typical air of superiority of the original, who we can forgive because he is a true authority on the subject. Let’s hope he doesn’t have anything to say about the fact that I, who generally feeds on classical music and jazz, when I want to indulge in something lighter, do not disdain REM, not even the ones from their latest period, even though I think the times of "Automatic for the People" are irretrievably lost. The review is good too, but that’s obvious: someone named Stipe can only be an expert on the matter.

warm referred to the guitars (their warm guitars

I don’t vote due to a clear conflict of interest, having also written a review of the same concert. However, I appreciated it very much, and at this point, it would be good to accompany the version by Argerich that I am familiar with with some of those mentioned here. There’s little to add about the beauty of the concert itself, in fact, nothing at all.

I never understood why Santana's early '70s work is so underrated by critics. From "Caravanserai" to "Borboletta," in my opinion, the Mexican guitarist and his band reached peaks of inspiration that even the first three "rhythmic" albums can't boast about. This album, while atypical and leaning towards the emerging "fusion" at the time, fully belongs to this phase. The only thing one could criticize is a certain stinginess: with all the repertoire offered by Coltrane, the two neophytes of guru Sri Chinmoy could have lent their warmth to a few more tracks if they wanted to.