Mi Sangre - Juanes > Reviews > getting over a lover takes a black shirt

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Fantastic sun - filled pop, latin beats and rocky choruses
Disadvantages:	It's a long album, so inevitably there is some filler

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I really love this guy. And anyone who has been in Europe this summer and heard 'La camisa negra' blasting out of hundreds of clubs does too. He's complaining about how much his girl has done him wrong, but over such a danceable beat that everyone ends up happy. That's the key to Juanes - whether he's bitter or deliriously in love, it's all delivered with positive energy. So he gets away with lines about how he wears a black shirt because his soul is black too...

Don't be put off by the album art, where Juanes looks like a hairy 80s rocker. The sound is pretty rocky, nothing harsh, but plenty of driving beats, especially on tracks like 'Nada valgo sin tu amor', my personal favourite. He's Columbian, which shows in his use of latin dance rhythms and guitars, especially on 'La camisa negra' and 'A Dios le pido'. He moves from smooth ballads (Para tu amor) to sparser songs about frustrated desire (Damelo) easily. His choruses are among the most uplifting, and get people who know no Spanish at all singing (or humming) along.

The album is a two CD set, with the second featuring some interesting extras such as an acoustic version of his massive hit 'A Dios le pido', which shows how tight the song really is, and a funky take on 'La paga' with Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas'. But apart from there, you won't hear any English on this album. Personally, I think it's a good thing, the Spanish lyrics have a distinctive poetry about them. If you can't live without knowing what it means, I'm sure there are kind people on the Internet who will translate. Juanes is genuinely cool, not like the novelty tracks which usually make it over from the Spanish-speaking world. And if you're one of those snobs who thinks that music in anything other than English cannot possibly be good, you're kidding yourself.