Juan Luis Guerra – La Llave de Mi Corazon
Reviewed by Sadie O., 5/12/08
Merengue and bachata from Dominican Republic’s mega-star. Often known for biting political humor, he seems to have fallen in love –mostly without getting all sappy and top-40 about it. Pretty much all tracks seem to be love songs, but most with a great Latin dance groove. Playing is exemplary, and he’s a terrific singer.
No FCCs detected. I like 1 and 11, 15 and esp. 14 best (which is basically 4 versions of the same song…)
1. 3:16 ***a bit of static and horns, then a swingy midtempo salsa groove, fun lyrics in Spanglish.
2. 3:25 **bongo fury intro, horns and uptempo salsa, lyrics in Spanish.
3. 4:05 *mellow but slightly uptempo hip wiggler, pretty solo vocals. Great syncopated percussion.
4. 3:28 *very mellow midtempo groove with hand drums – just the thing for watching the sunset on the beach, with a nice mojito or something. Very pretty.
5. 3:25 **nice midtempo groove with double-time hand percussion, soulful vocals. Cool horns, esp. in second half.
6. 2:42 *hand drum intro, acoustic guitar, extremely sweet and relaxed. I wonder if he got the idea for the song from an old Fred Astaire number…
7. 3:20 acoustic guitar and solo horn and sweet/sad vocals. No drums. I’ll sit this one out, thanks…
8. 3:25 **back on target with some fabulous percussion, uptempo salsa.
9. 3:48 *slow Latin jazz intro, midtempo salsa with sweet hand percussion and piano.
10. 3:56 jazz sax intro, very slow and mellow – a slow dance number for the incurably romantic.
11. 3:15 ***uptempo and upbeat pop salsa – basically track 1 in Spanish.
12. 4:03 *mellow samba with guest female jazz vocalist, in English.
13. 2:50 somber orchestral intro, acoustic guitar and vocals. Gets a bit of percussion action towards the end.
14. 3:16 ****remix of track 1 with added guest vocals.
15. 3:15 ***track 11 in Portuguese.