Powers of Ten is the first studio album by guitarist Shawn Lane, released in 1992 through Warner Bros. Records; a second edition was reissued in 1993, containing a revised track listing and alternative versions of "Get You Back" and "West Side Boogie"[3] (both of which were included as bonus tracks on the 2006 reissue through Eye Reckon Records). In a 2009 article by Guitar World magazine, the album was ranked seventh on the all-time top ten list of shred albums.[4]
Jas Obrecht at Guitar Player praised Powers of Ten as "a solo album in the truest sense. ... The immaculate articulations of "Gray Pianos Flying" will awe shred-heads, while "Epilogue (for Lisa) ... displays the guitarist's more tender side."[5]
Daniel Gioffre at AllMusic describing the album as "uneven and frustrating". Among his criticisms were the lack of a full band (Lane performed all the instruments himself on most tracks), the "egregious misstep" of using programmed drums, and the "long and meandering" keyboard pieces "Powers of Ten: Suite" and "Piano Concertino: Transformation of Themes"; the latter tracks he noted as interrupting the momentum established in the album's first half. He nonetheless called most of the songs "pleasant enough" and praised Lane as a "phenomenally talented" guitarist and musician.[1]
Track listing
All music is composed by Shawn Lane, except where noted
