Steve Vai
Flexable

If I say "Steve Vai," even the most unversed in music would respond: "guitarist." This is for one very simple reason: "Steve Vai is the best guitarist in the world." Honestly and personally, I consider this last statement a cliché; at most, I can consider him more skilled in certain aspects of "guitarism." But nevertheless, if many critics and reviewers consider him the best, there's a reason for it.

Steve Vai is a protégé of Zappa; he has entered the legend of six-string talents, and he is part of the supreme firmament of stars with a capital "S."
Steve Vai has over twenty years of uninterrupted career behind him, and I think that denying him success is a great folly, without, of course, taking anything away from other heroes like Hendrix, Malmsteen, Johnson, Satriani, Beck, Van Halen, Page, May, Clapton, Tolkki, and many others that don't come to mind right now.
Precisely because knowing that Vai is amazing is common knowledge, I wasn't particularly eager to take a train journey with FLEX-ABLE (so named because it was recorded on vinyl, thus flexible). In my ears, since I hadn't listened to it before, I thought—and indeed, I was convinced—that an hour of guitar hero would just bombard my head with riffs and solos, which, for goodness sake, might be beautiful and complicated, but come on... only those on a CD, how can they not get boring? Instead, I was pleased to reconsider.

The album is first and foremost a musical experiment, so it's hard to grasp at first and certainly (as I'm noticing now) difficult to review. What matters is that it's a joy to listen to: it's very clean and, above all, fun. Convinced and certain that I was going to hear a rough and super intense rock outburst, I was astonished and satisfied with the first song: "Little Green Man", which originates from the film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and delivers a sparkling and playful reinterpretation of the five notes with which aliens in the film communicated with humans, in a version that is strange and unusual (TRIP???). Following is "Viv Woman", properly electric guitar, so riffs but delicate and acceptable, garnished with wind instruments and bass. "Lovers Are Crazy" is sweet and whispered, almost romantic, while "Salamanders in the Sun" demonstrates that this analysis is a collection of technical games and experiments cultivated by Zappa and deepened by Vai.
"The Boy/Girl Song", on the other hand, is a very cheerful and rhythmic song, sweet and melodic with sax solos, where the most important presence is that of the singer and the female singer (both of whom I don’t know). It is followed by "The Attitude Song", or rather the song that seeks a boy who buys a specific guitarist’s CD, the song that represents Steve's technical skill, solos, riffs, tapping and so on, but without a sound structure, rather always as a mix of technical experiments, including the flexible and distorted sound.
"Call It Sleep" consists of light plucks of strings, which, a bit vibrating and a bit distorted, recall the idea of sleep and the dreamer dispersed among the clouds, but suddenly an (typical Vai) solo bursts in and enriches the overall atmosphere of the song. "Junkie" is a delicate music box, a carousel that serves as a base for a poetic and very expressive voice. The rhythm grows and becomes increasingly fast, accompanying a voice that seems to mimic or draw inspiration from David Bowie. Concluding are "Bill's Private Parts", "Next Stop Earth", and "There's Something Ddead in Here", all also tracks of sound experiments.

In conclusion, this is the first of a long path built by Steve Vai, who is a God of the guitar, and if you want to get it, you wouldn't do wrong, but beware and don't think you'll find something that can lead to "metal" or "rock," because you'd be mistaken. Moreover, perhaps it might not be appealing due to the frequent assembly of sound experiments.