Following her album
\nDestiny<\/i> (which saw her reign as one of the queens of the
\n1996 Atlanta Olympics) Gloria Estefan decided to draw back from the
\nsubtle, acoustic side and return to her “diva” place. This album
\nmarks that return. Particularly, there’s a very and definite 70s
\nvibe to
\nGloria!<\/i> that has become popular with many other singers and
\n“divas.” (I find that term to be both amusing and annoying, don’t
\nyou?)<\/p>\n
The album starts with the flamboyant “Heaven’s What I Feel.”
\nHere she sings about loving someone – even though they’re both in
\nfull-time relationships (Emilio, should you start worrying?) The
\nsong is pretty enough to be liked by teenage girls and danceable
\nenough that older ladies will instantly recognize and like its
\nvibe. As a matter of fact, that kind of attitude pops in other
\ntracks. “Don’t Stop” and “I Just Wanna Be Happy” are two other
\nsongs that are easy to like, but won’t annoy you. They are sugary,
\nbut not to the point of fattening.<\/p>\n
Another thing I’ve always liked about the Estefans is their
\ndesire to always mix in the sounds of the Raza. (It’s OK for me to
\nsay it – I’m a card-carrying member, \ud83d\ude09 ). Partly, it is because a
\nlarge percentage of her fan base is Hispanic, that’s true. However,
\nshe does not shy away from putting music that often times is
\nignored by the music fans here in the U.S. Here, she sings “Oye” in
\nSpanish – I have yet to see Celine add a French song to her big
\nEnglish albums. On the other hand, “Cuba Libre” sings about the
\nfeelings many of the expatriates of that island feel – hoping for a
\nday that they’ll be able to return home.<\/p>\n
I don’t, unfortunately, agree with a few calls. I know that
\nWyclef Jean is an incredible musician. But his contribution to
\n“Don’t Release Me” doesn’t sit well with me. On one hand, that song
\ntries to be a syrupy ballad, a club number and a rap song. Stick to
\none direction! On the other, Wyclef raps about meeting Gloria at a
\nclub – which would be fine in a full-on rap number between them
\nboth. But here it feels like they did separate pieces and tacked
\nthem later on.<\/p>\n
My second gripe goes to the number of remixes found at the end
\nof the album. I don’t mind one or two, but
\nfive<\/i>?! That’s why there’s singles – you tack them onto
\nthose. I think I stated this on the Shania Twain review, but I’m
\nnot a big fan of artists adding 20 songs on one CD if there’s
\nnothing relevant to say or do in each song. This drags down a CD.
\nAt the very least, they were smart to add these remixes at the end
\nof the CD – where, if you don’t want to listen, you can stop the
\nalbum.<\/p>\n
However, these two gripes at least don’t bother me that much.
\nWhen the album is good, it is. “Real Woman” is at least amusing and
\nthen there’s those small songs that guys play to girls around
\nFebruary 13th I think. “Don’t Let This Moment End” is very pretty
\nand so is “Touched By An Angel.” (Better than the TV show I’d say!)
\nThey feel like they belong at a junior or senior prom–right before
\nthe BIG number.<\/p>\n
\nGloria!<\/i> should cement Mrs. Estefan’s place as a Club
\nGoddess. She is showing to the upcoming “divas” that they don’t
\nhave to appeal to the “Under-17” group only. There can be club and
\nrave tracks and they can appeal to more than just its targeted
\ngroup audience. A fine record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":27424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7311],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38791","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-gloria-estefan","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38791"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38791"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}