Crystal Planet

Crystal Planet is the seventh studio album by the American guitarist Joe Satriani, released on March 3, 1998, by Epic Records.^[2] It was his first album to be released on Epic, whereas his previous six albums were released by Relativity Records. Crystal Planet reached No. 50 on the U.S. Billboard 200^[3] and remained on that chart for eight weeks,^[4] as well as reaching the top 100 in five other countries.^[5] "Ceremony" was released as a single, reaching No. 28 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart^[3] and featuring Satriani's first recorded use of a seven-string guitar, the Ibanez Universe. "A Train of Angels" was nominated for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 1999 Grammy Awards,^[6] Satriani's ninth nomination.

Crystal Planet
Studio album by Joe Satriani
Released	March 3, 1998 (1998-03-03)
Studio	The Plant Studios (Sausalito) The Site H.O.S. Recording Hyde Street (San Francisco) Fantasy (Berkeley)
Genre	Instrumental rock
Length	67:37
Label	Epic
Producer	Joe Satriani Eric Valentine Mike Fraser John Cuniberti
Joe Satriani chronology
G3: Live in Concert (1997) Crystal Planet (1998) Engines of Creation (2000)
Singles from Crystal Planet
"Ceremony" Released: 1998[1]

Reissues

Crystal Planet has been reissued twice. The first was on June 16, 2008, as part of the Original Album Classics box set,^[7] and then again as part of The Complete Studio Recordings, released on April 22, 2014, by Legacy Recordings; this is a box set compilation containing remastered editions of every Satriani studio album from 1986 to 2013.^[8]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]

Stephen Thomas Erlewine at AllMusic called Crystal Planet "an instrumental record with a difference" and Satriani's "finest all-instrumental effort since Surfing With the Alien". He praised Satriani for "taking more chances than ever" and further developing his technique, saying that it reaches "new, uncharted waters".^[2]

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Up in the Sky"	4:09
2.	"House Full of Bullets"	5:33
3.	"Crystal Planet"	4:34
4.	"Love Thing"	3:50
5.	"Trundrumbalind"	5:13
6.	"Lights of Heaven"	4:23
7.	"Raspberry Jam Delta-v"	5:21
8.	"Ceremony"	4:53
9.	"With Jupiter in Mind"	5:46
10.	"Secret Prayer"	4:27
11.	"A Train of Angels" (J. Satriani, Z.Z. Satriani)	3:42
12.	"A Piece of Liquid" (J. Satriani, Z.Z. Satriani)	3:04
13.	"Psycho Monkey" (J. Satriani, Z.Z. Satriani)	4:36
14.	"Time"	5:05
15.	"Z.Z.'s Song"	3:01
Total length:		67:37

All music is composed by Joe Satriani, except where noted.

Personnel

• Joe Satriani – guitar, guitar synthesizer, keyboard (tracks 5, 7, 13, 14), bass (tracks 2, 13, 14), harmonica, clapping (track 7), mixing (tracks 14, 15), producer (tracks 13–15)
• Eric Caudieux – keyboard (tracks 3, 7, 9, 12), programming, orchestration, editing
• Eric Valentine – keyboard (track 14), drums (tracks 13, 14), percussion (tracks 13, 14), bass (track 14), engineering (tracks 13, 14), mixing (track 14), production (tracks 13, 14)
• Jeff Campitelli – drums (tracks 1–12), percussion (tracks 1, 4, 6, 8–12), clapping (track 7)
• Elk Thunder – percussion (track 8)
• Rhoades Howe – percussion (track 14), engineering assistance (tracks 13, 14)
• Stuart Hamm – bass (tracks 1, 3–12)
• Mike Manning – clapping (track 7)
• Mike Fraser – clapping (track 7), engineering (tracks 1–13), mixing (tracks 1–13), production (tracks 1–13)
• John Cuniberti – engineering (tracks 14, 15), mixing (tracks 15), production (tracks 14, 15)
• Kent Matcke – engineering assistance (tracks 1–10, 12)
• Kevin Scott – engineering assistance (tracks 1–12), mixing assistance (track 14)
• Stephen Hart – engineering assistance (track 15)
• Judy Kirschner – engineering assistance
• Zac Allentuck – mixing assistance (tracks 1–10, 12, 13)
• George Marino – mastering

Charts

Chart (1998)	Peak position
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[9]	59
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[10]	54
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[11]	35
French Albums (SNEP)[12]	10
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[13]	73
Scottish Albums (OCC)[14]	41
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[15]	40
UK Albums (OCC)[16]	32
UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC)[17]	1
US Billboard 200[18]	50

Sales

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United States	—	202,416[19]

Awards

Event	Title	Award	Result
1999 Grammys	"A Train of Angels"	Best Rock Instrumental Performance	Nominated[6]