Blessings and Miracles

Recording information: Arcade Songs, NYC; Avi Snow's Bedroom Studio; Follow Your Light, Kilauea, HI; Koils; Laughing Tiger Studios, San Rafael, CA; Leaky Spigot, Miami, Florida; Ohana Studio, Beverly Hills; Realsongs Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Shangri La Studios, Malibu, CA; Sputnik Sound, Nashville, TN; Tarpan Studios, San Rafael, CA; The Dog House, Sherman Oaks, CA; Wincraft Studio, Cotswolds, UK.
Blessings and Miracles belongs to the Supernatural lineage, an album where Santana often cedes the spotlight to a diverse array of guest stars. What sounded fresh in 1999 now sounds slightly formulaic in 2021, especially since Santana reunite with Rob Thomas, the Matchbox Twenty singer who helped turn Supernatural's "Smooth" into an international hit back in the days of Y2K. To his credit, Thomas doesn't toss off "Move," a punchy pop tune that also features American Authors, but, then again, nobody involved in Blessings and Miracles sounds as if they're going through the motions. When Steve Winwood comes in to sing "Whiter Shade of Pale" to a vaguely electronic rhythm, he sounds invested, as does Chris Stapleton when he belts out the vaguely reggae "Joy." The latter suggests how some of the collaborations and ideas here can be slightly off -- there's no escaping that G-Eazy and Diane Warren make odd partners on "She's Fire" -- but such awkward fusions make Blessings and Miracles seem like an album created by artists and not in a corporate boardroom. Throughout it all, Carlos Santana plays vibrant, vigorous guitar and he sounds as engaged playing with Corey Glover or Kirk Hammett as he does a posthumous Chick Corea. That these diverse strands don't quite get threaded together is OK: as a collection of moments, Blessings and Miracles does the job. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine