Albums2010 Revisited: Blessings & Miracles

I can't remember when I got this album, but I know I haven't listened to it all that much since the first time I got it. Which is a shame because if two Santana albums were growing up that I was very familiar with, it would probably be Abraxas and Supernatural (which featured as #25 and #26 on the original Albums2010 run) so I'm still not quite sure why Blessings & Miracles hasn't been spun up more often, but for whatever reason, it hadn't, so I gave it a whirl and then I realized why it probably hasn't been spun up all that often.

Don't get me wrong: it's very much a Santana album, and my opinions are probably hampered by the fact that I haven't done a complete dive on his very extensive discography (this album is #26 for Santana and produced by the man himself) so I say this not knowing for sure if it's par for the course or not, but it feels like this albums is trying to recapture the formula of guest stars/musical acts that made Supernatural so great while trying to hearken back to the original sound of albums like Abraxas that helped the band to break through.

(Hey, two random things we should tangent here about: first, Neal Schon- of Journey, was actually an original member of Santana. Did not know that. And two, this quote from the album's wikipage:

According to Santana, the title of the album comes from 'my belief that we're born with heavenly powers that allows us to create blessings and miracles.' He believes music has such power. He also saw the album as 'mystical medicine music to heal an infected world of fear and darkness' The cover art features an image of Tlaloc, the Aztec god of rain.

The cover art is legit cool.)

But enough of that, let's talk about the album itself:

First, we gotta say that when this album came out in 2021, Carlos Santana was pushing into his seventies (dude is 77 now) and he has lost none of his power and ability with the guitar. He's one of those musicians who can take that instrument and make it sing (and you can put him right next to people like Prince, IMO), and his guitar sings. It works beautifully when it's playing off of vocals-- whether his or anyone else's and almost acts as a counterpoint or even a duet in many ways in a lot of his songs.

Second, the best track from this album (the ones that feature vocals anyway) is probably 'Whiter Shade of Pale', which is a really excellent collab with Steve Winwood. Do they change the original song that much? No. It's more or less as you probably remember it, but they infuse it with Latin jazz, and that really updates and refreshes the track in really cool ways.

Third, the instrumental tracks and interludes are excellent: 'Ghosts of Future Pull/New Light', 'Santana Celebration', 'Rumbalero' 'Song For Cindy', 'Angel Choir/All Together', 'Ghosts of Future Pull II' all sound like what you'd expect for a Santana album and there are very much shades of Abraxas and earlier-era (pre-Supernatural?) Santana to be found here.

But finally, we've got to talk about the balance. I feel like this was an album that was trying to recapture the magic of Supernatural a little bit and didn't quite get there. There is a good balance between the instrumental tracks and his collaboration with artists. 'Whiter Shade of Pale' with Steve Winwood and 'Joy' with Chris Stapleton are excellent tracks-- and 'Breathng Underwater', which features Stella Santana-- one of his kids is another great track. 

But 'Peace Power' and 'America For Sale' are jarring. They are completely different tracks from anything else on the album-- almost hard rock, even metal in a way, which is a completely different tone from anything else you see on this album. (And sort of even runs contrary to the title: it's not that I dislike the tracks, but when you call an album Blessings & Miracles, it's sort of surprising to find loud, muscular rock music on there (that's even a little bit angry?). Don't get me wrong: the lyrics and the tones of the tracks fit perfectly, they just don't fit in all that well with the rest of the album.

If you like Santana, you'll like this album. I think it's trying to blend the instrumental tones of an album like Abraxas with his commercial revival from Supernatural and try and capture the best of both, but I'm not quite sure Blessings & Miracles gets there.  If you liked 'old school' Santana, you're going to find plenty on this album to like. If you first found Santana listening to 'Smooth' on the radio in the late 90s, you'll find plenty to like, too.