Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards

This is the thirteenth studio album, released by Epic on 5 October 2010 as 88697735002 with eleven tracks. The Japanese edition, EICP-1434, followed on 8 December with thirteen: it adds Heartbeats and Longing, two songs that were otherwise available in the United States only through Best Buy and Napster. It was recorded between June and August 2010 and the title was announced on 20 August. In the run-up to release, Satriani put up a podcast about each track in turn on his official Facebook page and YouTube channel, and on 7 September he gave away Light Years Away as a free MP3 single in exchange for the listener posting about it on Facebook or Twitter. Stephen Thomas Erlewine at AllMusic gave it three stars, calling it a mature work from one of the great rock guitarists and pure guitar prog, filled with compressed boogies, science-fiction synths, exotic flourishes and all of Satch's phasers and flangers in full-tilt overdrive. It reached number 45 on the Billboard 200 and the top hundred in ten other countries. The running order here is the import CD's as printed.