There are reviews here on Amazon that say something to the effect of, "This isn't a guitar album, it's a movie soundtrack," and "Buy a movie score, it's the same thing." And you know what? They're right. This is a cinematic soundtrack - a great one at that.

The best works of John Williams and other master film composers set the mood and enhance the emotion of the scene when they're playing in the background, and bring back memories of the scene when you hear them outside the theater. When I hear the Imperial March from "The Empire Strikes Back", it doesn't matter where I am, I expect a shadow to fall over me as a very large Star Destroyer moves by overhead.

Satriani has shown his ability to create moods with the guitar in the past, in songs like "Midnight" (from Surfing with the Alien), "Time" (from Crystal Planet), and "The Forgotten" (from Flying in a Blue Dream). But on Strange Beautiful Music, he does this in almost every track.

Never mind that his music isn't playing in the background of a scene. When you hear the tracks here scenes will be pulled into your head. "Starry Night" brings to my mind a scene where people are leaving their houses and looking up at the sky, while all the lights in town go out one by one, the better to see the stars with. In "Mountain Song" I'm up in a helicopter, watching a solitary vehicle travel down a winding mountain road. Scenes will vary from person to person of course, but the effect is always magical.

If you're looking for displays of mad guitar skill, you can still find them here - this is Satriani after all. But it's the songwriting, scene-pulling, mood-creating skill that you will come to enjoy most in this album. Buy this album, and watch a movie unfold in your head without any images, or words for that matter.