Thursday, October 23, 2008

Stars In Your Eyes

It's been a busy week with two long-awaited releases who turned out to be fabulous albums. Check out Aterciopelados' Rio and Calle 13's Los De Atras Vienen Conmigo below, and to immerse yourself in the music, pop out the gray Yahoo player on your bottom left!

But what I wanted to say: when reading music magazines or browsing the web, I noticed that the first thing I look at in a review, is how many stars the writer thinks a record, movie, whatever is worth. It gives you an idea of what to expect, and can be an extra incentive to read the article. So I decided to add a 'star' rating to our reviews as well. Here's how it breaks down:

No stars - will probably not be reviewed, cause it's crap
- avoid!
- less than mediocre
- good effort but nothing special
- very good, has to be included in Top 10
- essential work of art!

Check out the list of previous albums by pressing "Show videos" below.

Aterciopelados - Rio ****
Calle 13 - Los De Atras Vienen Conmigo *****
Acida - The Greatest Hits ****
Daddy Yankee - Talento De Barrio ***
Bajofondo - Mar Dulce ***half
Fania DJ Series: Gilles Peterson **half
I Like It Like That - Fania Remixed ***
Plastilina Mosh - All U Need Is Mosh ***
Jorge Drexler - Cara B ****
Sergio Mendes - Encanto ***
Choc Quib Town - Somos Pacifico ****half
Pacifika - Asuncion **half
Manolito y su Trabuco - La Habana Me Llama ***
Adalbarto Alvarez - Gozando La Habana ***
Café Tacuba - Sino *****
Juanes - La Vida Es Un Ratico **
Gloria Estefan - 90 Millas ***half
Manu Chao - La Radiolina **half
Tego Calderon - El Abayarde Contra-Ataca **half
Marc Anthony - El Cantante ****
Marisa Monte - Infinito Particular ***
Marisa Monte - Universo Ao Meu Redor ***half
Bebel Gilberto - Momento ****
Mayra Andrade - Navega *****
Bonde do Role - With Lasers ****
Tita Lima - 11:11 ***
Spanish Harlem Orchestra - United We Swing ****
Daddy Yankee - El Cartel 3: The Big Boss **
Calle 13 - Residente o Visitante *****
Gotan Project - Lunatico ****
Moenia - Solar ***half
Buscemi - Retro Nuevo ****
Federico Aubele - Panamericana ***half
Luz Mob - Luz Interpretations **half
Jennifer Lopez - Como Ama Una Mujer *
Juan Luis Guerra - La Llave De Mi Corazon ****half
Ibrahim Ferrer - Mi Sueño ****half
Telmary - A Diario ****
Rodrigo y Gabriela - Rodrigo y Gabriela ***half
Aterciopelados - Oye ****
Los Amigos Invisibles - Superpop Venezuela ***half
Various - Los Cocorocos **half
Pitbull - El Mariel **
Luny Tunes - Los Benjamins *half
Tego Calderon - The Underdog *****
Mana - Amar Es Combatir **
Andres Calamaro - Tinta Roja ***half
Don Omar - King of Kings *half
Gustavo Cerati - Ahi Vamos *****
Jean - On **
Calle 13 - Calle 13 ****

3 comments:

Carlos Reyes said...

Ratings are fun, but tricky. Especially for people like me, always changing my ratings, but they are helpful. So I do both, star and numeric.

Anonymous said...

I am NOT down with ratings.

Pleased that Cafe Tacvba got the nod for at least one award. But - all honesty here - Juanes' music in my opinion, despite the massive popularity, was NOT the best of the year. That would go to Cafe Tacvba, Calle 13, and Julieta Venegas. They alone have broadened music's horizons for popular or rock music sung in Spanish this year.

Is there anyone else out in the world that thinks that Juanes' lyrics really got in the way of his music? I feel his album sounded quite DESPERATE - it had some interesting things going on in terms of chords and arragements and sounds, but I feel it would have been better (and this is my assessment after listening to his last couple of albums, specifically the last two albums) if he either

1. Hires another song-writer like Jorge Villamizar, who can actually put two and two together when it comes to words

2. Combines his musical arrangements with another singer, so Juanes and his musicians would go and accompany someone else who needs some arrangement magic, but who has their own lyrics. Maybe they could give some back-up to Chayanne or something.

Sorry for the heated reaction, but I have listened over and over to Juanes' two albums and I cannot move away from the opinion that he hasn't had any good SONGS since around 2003!

Am I mistaken? I dont think so. Ten years from now no one will play those albums. They just aren't great. However, among those in the know, I think Cafe Tacvba has staying power. they came up with some classics.

Chapín said...

AJM, couldn't agree with you more about Juanes (don't see what it's got to do with the ratings though)

Grammy post coming up real soon, promised :)