Steve Vai - The Story of Light

Vai, the prolific guitar-wizard, releases yet another solo-album. Continuing his fame in the string-bending and shred-community. Such a hard-working idol, dedicated to his work as this man denies trends and simply keeps playing his passionate music.
With his long history of dealing with spirituality expressed through his two-faced self-absorbed and self-distanced persona. He once again tours the world giving special 250$ worth of personal meet and greet and Q&A sessions. A great successful self-promoter who proclaims himself as an introvert. These attributes are part of what gives Steve his great allure, his excellent musicianship aside.

This release is a plethora, like many of its predecessors, of different styles and ideas. Steve Vai has always been a student of all kinds of musics, and that is admirable in it's own right, but producing a self-contained product with that philosophy may sometimes prove difficult.
The initial feeling I was left with after the first listen, was that of a heap of songs haphazardly thrown on a disc. Is that what an album is you say? Oh well, to me it really helps if an album has a clear theme, and Vai previously has done albums that feel a bit more consistent than this.

On the flip side of things, there are some really good tunes on this album. Steve Vai's ability to write catchy, simple yet flaringly sophisticated  songs is still apparent. Yet, the album starts off dully with what I describe as a overly flamboyant long and quite one-sided ambient intro-song. Sadly I have misplaced my babelfish, so the russian narrator presented throughout most of the track, just comes out as a minor distraction (although the russian language really is pleasent to listen to ere).
Thankfully the second track "Velorum" is more along the lines of what a novice Steve Vai fan would expect. A groove, a melody, some extravagant guitarplaying and less than ordinary sound-composition.
Next up is the interesting cover of an old gospel song, split-up into two parts; "John The Revelator" and . It's the albums biggest style hiccup, but isn't at all bad musically.
"Gravity Storm" is the middle-ground and arguably the strongest track on the entire album. A simple riff, with an incredibly rhythmic and heavy base. Guaranteed to make you want to move around feeling like you're the coolest thing ever.
The next mention worthy-track is the ballad called "The Moon and I" and is definitely Vai's best vocal performance to date. He has previously attempted to sing on songs, but up until now, nothing has had the slightest chance of shining in the midst of his guitar-playing.

All in all, Steve Vai keeps making good music, and in the end that is what matters.

Will I listen to this album again?:
Only certain songs