Alien Love Secrets

Alien Love Secrets was written and recorded in less than six weeks as a stripped-down guitar, bass and drums record with minimal keyboards. According to Vai, he had wished to maintain a steady output of material following his 1993 album Sex & Religion, but the recording process for the 70+ minutes of his subsequent 1996 album Fire Garden was taking too long. The EP was therefore purposely released in anticipation of Fire Garden.Vai, Steve. [http://www.vai.com/album-alien-love-secrets/ "Alien Love Secrets (1995)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151225033127/http://www.vai.com/album-alien-love-secrets/ |date=2015-12-25 }}. vai.com. Retrieved 2014-12-10. Stylistically Alien Love Secrets marks a return to the more familiar instrumental rock of Vai's 1990 album Passion and Warfare, following the highly mixed reception to Sex & Religion.

Notable tracks include "Bad Horsie", which was derived from a riff played by Vai during the final scenes of the 1986 film Crossroads; "Juice" was featured on the soundtrack of the 1996 PlayStation video game Formula 1; "Ya-Yo Gakk" is a call and response interplay with vocal recordings of Vai's young son Julian; "Tender Surrender", one of Vai's most popular songs, bases itself around a familiar sound, structure and tempo as Jimi Hendrix's "Villanova Junction" from his 1969 performance at Woodstock, although written in a different key; and "The Boy from Seattle", which is a tribute to Hendrix written by Vai.

{{Album ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|3|5}}

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Stephen Thomas Erlewine at AllMusic gave Alien Love Secrets three stars out of five, calling it a "moodier, more atmospheric collection" than Passion and Warfare. He also praised his "fluid technique, which manages to never become completely mechanical."

{{Track listing

| all_music = Steve Vai

| title1 = Bad Horsie

| length1 = 5:51

| title2 = Juice

| length2 = 3:44

| title3 = Die to Live

| length3 = 3:53

| title4 = The Boy from Seattle

| length4 = 5:03

| title5 = Ya-Yo Gakk

| length5 = 2:52

| title6 = Kill the Guy with the Ball"

• "b] The God Eaters

| length6 = 7:02

| title7 = Tender Surrender

| length7 = 5:01

| total_length = 33:26

}}

• Steve Vai – guitar, keyboard, Eventide H3000 harmonizer, drum programming, bass, engineering, production
• Tommy Mars – organ (track 7)
• Deen Castronovo – drums (tracks 3, 4, 6, 7)
• Julian Vai – baby vocals (track 5)
• Sergio Buss – engineering assistance
• Bernie Grundman – mastering
• Pam Daney – production assistance

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.guitar9.com/alienlovesecrets.html Guitar Nine Records - In Review: Steve Vai "Alien Love Secrets"] at Guitar Nine Records

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Category:Steve Vai albums

Category:1995 EPs

Category:Relativity Records EPs