Flying In A Blue Dream

One of the side effects (both beneficial and not) of the ’80s guitar god worship sparked by Eddie Van Halen was that, for a few minutes, guitarists could put out solo instrumental albums and people actually paid attention. Although Surfing with the Alien gets more attention (especially with the striking Silver Surfer cover art), his third album, inspired by the death of his father, really shows how much emotion Satriani could tease out of his instrument — the main thing that elevated him amongst all his peers. His vocal attempts were a little shaky, granted. It’s still hard to top the wizardry he displays on tracks like the title song and “Back to Shalla-Bal.”