To The Stars (album) - Reception

Reception

The album reached number eight on Billboard magazine's Top Contemporary Jazz charts in September 2004, and Corea earned a 2004 Grammy Award nomination for instrumental arrangement for the track "The Long Passage". The album received a rating of three stars from Allmusic, three stars from The Observer, three and a half stars from The Star-Ledger, and four stars from The Times. In a review of the work in The Washington Post, Geoffrey Himes writes that "Corea occasionally falls into his old bad habits of jazz-rock fusion excess, substituting frenetic virtuosity for melodic content and emotional connection on tunes such as the album-opening 'Check Blast' and 'Hound of Heaven.'" Himes highlights Corea's compositions of the seven "Port View" interludes, and calls "Alan Corday" the best piece on the album. Mike Joyce of The Washington Post also appreciated the "flamenco-tinged ballad" of the "Alan Corday" track. Christopher Blagg of the Boston Herald liked "the dense electrified samba of the joyous 'Mistress Luck - The Party'", and commented: "Somewhere L. Ron Hubbard was smiling." Bob Young of the Boston Herald described the album as "music that shifts continually from bright, aggressive jazz fusion to melodic tranquility and back again". James F. Collins gave the album a positive review in The Harvard Crimson, writing: "To The Stars is a testament to his unflagging creativity and is a proud addition to his already expansive discography." Mike Hobart reviewed the album for Financial Times, commenting that "once the band had delivered its first unison riff, the music's inspirational source was irrelevant as a fine programme of jazz-fusion poured out".

In his review of the album, Ben Ratliff of The New York Times writes: "I did like the driving, collective muscle of the band, though, very much," but he also describes its aesthetics as "cluttered and gaudy". For PopMatters, Associate Music Editor Justin Cober-Lake writes: "In many ways, it's a supreme accomplishment with difficult technique passages and broad soundscapes; on the other hand, it's a journey that's too long to take." In his review of Corea's later work The Ultimate Adventure, Will Friedwald of The New York Sun writes: "'To the Stars' was trite, electronic bubblegum music that sounded like a cheesy video-game soundtrack." Writing in The Times, John Bungey comments that "many of the pieces are straitjacketed into the cosmic concept", concluding his review with: "If you prefer hi-fi to sci-fi, then you will be hoping that Corea leaves the space helmet at home next time." John L. Walters gave the album a negative review in The Guardian, writing that the album "cries out for warning stickers - 'this album contains dangerously high levels of Scientology'", and that it "drags some perfectly fine jazz musicians ... through conceptual purgatory".