The first track, "A Love Supreme", is a version of the Coltrane composition "Acknowledgement" from the 1964 landmark album
A Love Supreme. It features McLaughlin and Santana, both playing
electric guitar, in an extended, improvised trading of bars. For the most part, Santana is
panned to the left channel and McLaughlin to the right. As with the original, toward the end a chant of "A love supreme" is heard. (Only
Armando Peraza is credited as a singer.) "
Naima" is another Coltrane composition, played on
acoustic guitar. First appearing in 1959 on Coltrane's
Giant Steps, it is a gentle song played in a straightforward manner. "The Life Divine" again returns to Coltrane's
A Love Supreme, opening with the chanted phrase "the love divine." The song's first part is extensive, high-tempo improvisation by Santana, alternating between quick phrases and long, sustained notes (including one that runs from 3:29 to 4:03). Midway through the song and introduced by the "life divine" chant, McLaughlin takes over with mostly high-speed staccato bursts and riffs. The chant returns, incorporating "it's yours and mine", and Larry Young's organ, with percussion, provide the outro. "Let Us Go Into the House of the Lord" is a 16-minute-long track based on the traditional gospel song. The arrangement was credited to Santana and McLaughlin but Bob Palmer in
Rolling Stone wrote that the arrangement is close enough to
Lonnie Liston Smith's "to be described as a cop". Smith's arrangement was recorded in 1970 when he worked with
Pharoah Sanders, who had recorded and worked closely with Coltrane. After the slow introductory statement (the part which resembles Smith's arrangement), most of the piece consists of soloing over two chords accompanied by a loping bass and Latin percussion. Of Larry Young's organ contribution here, Paul Stump, in
Go Ahead John, wrote: "with its overlapping flurries of triplets, [it] is a moment of pure genius, worthy of mention in its own right, a musical equivalent of a swarm of surreally coloured butterflies." The track closes with a return to the slow introductory statement. The final track, "Meditation", is a "pretty but light McLaughlin composition" that McLaughlin had previously recorded as a solo for exclusive use by the New York radio station
WNEW-FM. McLaughlin plays
piano, and Santana the acoustic guitar, on
Love Devotion Surrender's version of the tune. ==Critical reception==