AL DI MEOLA — Splendido Hotel (review)

AL DI MEOLA — Splendido Hotel album cover Album · 1980 · Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
Sean Trane
ADM’s fourth album was a double album, but only containing a meagre 60 minutes of music, was supposed to be an ambitious departure of style compared to his first three solo efforts. In a sense, SH accomplishes that, straying from his usual sound, and losing himself a bit in the process as well, IMHO! Not only does ADM seem to touch a bit of everything, but due to the album’s “double” offering (although it’s more like 1,5) but also diluting his “propos” way too much. In a way, he (ADM) was right to try to change because his constant drive to fame, glory and prizes & awards and his quest to become the fastest guitarslinger was verging the ridiculous, culminating in his sorry performance, crushed by the two giants McLaughlin and DeLucia in that San Francisco album.

Offering much variety through his acoustic playing and his fierier electric playing, this album dishes every single possible style of DiMeolized music, from the most attractive jr/f he had us used to, the FM Steely Dan-esque fusion to the tackiest muzak with some overdrawn string sections passages and other semi-Latino influences. This huge mish-mash pot pourri of such distant styles is downright directionless, purposeless and frankly more boring than anything else. Sure, there are the odd bits of ADM brilliance (but nothing new under his Midnight Sun) that stop this album from sinking/stinking such as Dinner Music Of The Gods or the title track. On the whole, this album makes me yawn much more than smile, and even when the second option is there, I’m not sure it is the way Al would’ve hoped for.

This then-young fan must say that, by the time of this album’s release, he had almost turned his back on ADM and his supposedly Latin lover romantic looks and musical pretensions and shoddy artwork to go along, but then again in 79-80, it was that whole JR/F scene that had lost all impetus and momentum and was starting to sound horribly cliché, but ADM was at the head of the pack, leading the race towards senility and reaping nothing but cold shoulders, devoid of the expected laurels and award medals to cover them up. For unconditional fans. .
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