CARLOS SANTANA AT FULL THROTTLE FOR MIGRA OFF SUPERNATURAL

As a complete package, meaning a combination of songwriting, dynamics, melody and lyrics there are better songs than MIGRA off the hugely popular SANTANA supergroup album SUPERNATURAL released in the year 1999, three that come to mind being LEAVE YOUR LIGHTS ON feauturing EVERGLADE, the biggest hit single SMOOTH featuring some silky smooth vocals by MATCHBOX 20 headbanging frontman ROB THOMAS, and the very latin influenced MARIA MARIA, a collaboration between Carlos Santana and R&B hip hop group THE PRODUCT G&B. All very pleasant songs, but the first two already sound dated 12 years later and dare i say they always sounded a little manufactured, MARIA MARIA i have to say is often the only song i play when i give SUPERNATURAL a whirl but the thing that lets this song down a bit is its lack of a big chorus or epic solo from Santana himself. MIGRA was not released as a single off the album, which seems to make sense really, because it really does possess some pyrotechnic foundation and rock heaviness that none of the other tracks do, it would have made a classic B-side on vinyl had 45's still been around in 1999.
The trombone and trumpet on MIGRA in comparison to other tracks sounds a lot less forced and freeflowing, which allowed Santana to let loose and build up to his best guitar solo on SUPERNATURAL. I cant understand a word TONY LINDSAY, KARL PERAZZO and K.C PORTER are singing on MIGRA, it could be spanish for all i know (laugh) but it still makes for what i'd call a 'great background party tune'. As a whole SUPERNATURAL is fairly wishy washy, not exactly a rock classic, but with over 30 million album sales to boast, it certainly had something going for it.