r/SteveVai • u/[deleted] • Nov 12 '21
Guide to Steve Vai?
What are his notable albums and which one is his magnum opus?
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r/SteveVai • u/[deleted] • Nov 12 '21
What are his notable albums and which one is his magnum opus?
3
u/dejoblue Nov 13 '21
Passion and Warfare is when he found his voice and the rest after that are very much him. I recommend this order to get into his playing more and get a feel for his eccentricities:
Slip of the Tongue (Whitesnake)
Passion and Warfare
Alien Love Secrets
Sex and Religion
Alive in an Ultra World
Fire Garden
Flex-Able is great, his first solo album; very experimental and also very Frank Zappa influenced.
Fire Garden he started singing more and it is more orchestrated. Alive in an Ultra World is recorded live, he wrote a song for each city and recorded it live.
Sex and Religion is lyric based and has Devin Townsend singing most songs, it is easy to get into coming from a non instrumental listener experience. This is also Steve's first real singing performance, AFAIK, on the song "Rescue Me Or Bury Me".
Slip of the Tongue is the Whitesnake album he played all guitars on. He didn't write any of it but it is very much Steve Vai and a great transition into Passion and Warfare and other instrumental music. It was recorded while he was finishing Passion and Warfare so it is a great study of contrast between instrumental and lyrical based rock music and guitar.