Brownout - Homenaje
Good balance of pluses and minuses on this one. I'm definitely diggin' the Santana and mid 70's War influences throughout. 'Brown Wind and Fire' has some stellar orchestration and the production values are nice n' beefy. Perhaps the main issue is that they try to be a little too middle-of-the-road here through most of these pieces. They don't extend out to jam much sans the 5-minute 'You Already Are', which is a side 2 highlight even though it has a muted quality. They aren't hurting for variety within the Latin funk-rock umbrealla, but I would have liked some jammier cuts or a talented vocalist to add some spice. Going back to Santana for a sec....that guy could really pick his vocalists even back on some of his 70's outings.
5.5 out of 10. More oomph would have pushed things to a 7.
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