Joe Satriani has a reputation as one of the rare guitar wizards whose appeal is not limited to twang-bar nerds. Surfing With the Alien, his album of 1987, was the highest-charting rock-instrumental LP in more than ten years, and on Flying in a Blue Dream, he bolsters his crackling, mad-cat tone with an increasingly focused sense of melody and the first vocals he's ever recorded.

At his best,...