As is increasingly de rigueur with the kind of artists whom men with flipcharts refer to as “legacy brands”, Santana’s 20th studio album is once again stacked high with special guests. With the exception of Con Santana and Trinity, there’s little here that anyone with a dog-eared copy of Abraxas will recognise.

Carlos Santana’s playing is used here as little more than a stamp of authentication, providing a recognisably Latin fretboard flourish to Michelle Branch’s summery pop trill (I’m Feeling You) and — on My Man — Mary J. Blige’s doe- eyed affirmations. And, though the whole thing never deviates from toe-tapping pleasantness, the trade-off between Santana the feelgood brand name and Santana the glorified session guitarist is never less than apparent. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Given that the formula reaped dividends on the 1999 comeback album Supernatural, it could even be that this is as much Carlos Santana as people want on a single album.

PP

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