Abraxas

This is Santana’s real breakthrough album. Brilliant from start to finish.

Did not realise that it was going to be so instrumental

Beautiful bright coloured artwork. Plays perfectly with no crackles or surface noise but beware if you specifically want the 50th anniversary version this isn’t it. The one Amazon is selling is the 2017 reissue. According to Discogs the 2020 issue has a hype sticker this doesn’t and all the id numbers relate to the 2017 version not the 2020. Given the price was reduced I will be keeping this but as another reviewer says. Amazon needs to change the description of this record.

OK, there is absolutely nothing wrong with any Santana music in my book so all the stars awarded by me are in relation to this lovely CD, remastered and with added bonus tracks. I also have the album on vinyl but don't really like playing it due to wear over the years. So why not 5 stars ? Well I did have Abraxas on my Amazon music unlimited account and could stream it all over the house and in my car. Reccently however, |Amazon have delered ths is album from their online service without giving a reason. So I went and bought the CD and am considering buying more CDs and cancelling my Amazon music account. Rant over, this is a really great classic album.

Finally received this disc the other day after a short delay - it was not available until a week or so after its supposed release date (not a great problem seeing as I first became aware of an intended Mofi SACD release over two years ago). I have a good number of SACDs (classical/jazz/rock) and most compare pretty well with the vinyl when I have the same work on both formats (the Patricia Barber 'Café Blue' I reviewed recently is such a case). This time around I think the vinyl (Mofi, single disc) sounds better by some margin - everything seems better controlled and has more 'air' - I might have to investigate other editions!I have loved the music on this album since I bought it 46-odd years ago when the LP first came out (I was still at school!) and I think there must be a definitve version out there - it's just not this SACD!

Vinyl shipped from Amazon Germany and pressing immaculate. 180gm in weight. Sound was just great, played album twice as so impressive, highly recommended.

This is an album I had on cassette as a teenager; I've finally got around to replacing it. Great guitar playing from Carlos Santana, great Latin rhythms from the band. Highlights for me include Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen, originally written by Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac, who guests on this track, and the laid back Samba Pa Ti

I haven't heard Santana's music for many years, and was surprised to learn, for some reason! that Santana is an abbreviation for Santa Ana or St Anne. The music is played with extraordinary fluency so that it lifts off the album and creates a sound universe of its own. It reminds me of my psychedelic days when I became unclear about how much of the experienced world is a projection of our complex minds and how much of it is some extraordinarily flexible otherness on which our minds work. In this curiously destabilising way, the music points beyond itself to the transcendent realm. When the universe seems fluid some higher divine power suggests itself as the sure and restful place of stability. The skill of Santana is to generate this sense of instability that points beyond itself. This music is, for its period, only surpassed by Pete Green's compositions. But certainly I am listening to this Santana album a lot at the moment.