Santana-Zebop (1981)

Featuring almost the same lineup as their previous album, "Marathon", Carlos Santana continued his journey through the musical wilderness of the 1980s, releasing the band's eleventh album, "Zebop". Following the AOR path of "Marathon", in this new release the Mexican guitarist delves even deeper into the sounds that flooded radio stations at the time. Bands like Boston, Styx, Toto, Journey, REO Speedwagon, and Foreigner dominated the charts worldwide with their high-quality melodic rock. In that context, Santana offered an engaging album where, as usual, their enormous skill with the six-string guitar shone through, along with highly meritorious AOR compositions such as the addictive "Changes", "Searchin' ", "Winning", "Over and Over", and "I Love You Much Too Much", while their vintage style is present in "Primera Invasion", "Tales of Kilimanjaro", "American Gypsy", "É Papa Ré", "Sensitive Kind", "Brightest Star", and "Hannibal". "Zepob" is one of Santana's works where they best managed to combine the modern sounds of melodic rock with the jazz-rock of their albums from the previous decade.