Santana's Shango was released in 1982 and unlike earlier, “classic” Santana albums (i.e. from 1969 to 1972), this one features typical 80s production (synths, electronic drums, etc.). Conspicuous, nevertheless, are Santana’s trademark guitar and Latin-tinged rhythms.
My favorite song on the album is “The Nile” – Sample Lyric: “Her skin was dark / Her voice was liquid fire / She said I am your mate / And soul's desire.”
I fist listened to Shango sometime in 2002 or 2003 (11th grade) on cassette (forcing me to listen to the whole album from start to end nonstop).
This brings in another (perhaps obvious) point: Repetition will determine your musical preferences. I grew up listening to music based on the blues scale. I know some people can instantly appreciate certain genres or bands (e.g. - Sonic Youth / Post-Rock???) but it takes a lot of listens for me to get into such music.
I’m sure someone’s already done a full on study on musical listening processes and methods.
Going back to Shango, the music itself is cheesy. Sometimes a good and bad kind of cheesy at the same time, but straightforward good cheesy for the most part. Consequently, this is an endearing and uplifting album (note: this is purely subjective).
Still, I can tell you what’s not subjective : Shango is the musical equivalent of Romancing The Stone. I'm going to go ahead and say I like this album.
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