Las Cosas Que He Oído
Written: Nov 24 '00 (Updated Nov 24 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good vocals and well-done music
Cons: Nothing that's really greatly catchy
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| dtobias's Full Review: Las Cosas que He Visto by Tatiana |
This album and its predecessor, Un Lobo en La Noche, are the transition albums in Tatiana's singing career between her "teen pop" and her more adult phase. There's a bit of confusion about their release dates; my copies of both have copyright dates of 1989 except in one spot on Las Cosas Que He Visto's CD case where it says 1988. However, the list of albums on her official website's biography page says that Lobo was released in 1988 and Cosas in 1989. This chronology makes more sense than that of the copyright dates on the CDs, because this order fits the evolution of her musical style better than the reverse order of release would. Lobo was still catchy pop like her earlier teen releases, though going for a harder-rock feel than the light pop of earlier albums. Cosas, like the three "adult" albums that followed it, was making a greater effort to be grown-up and sophisticated, sacrificing much of the pop catchiness in the process. These albums were apparently not as commercially successful as her earlier releases; she experimented with a variety of styles from hard-rocking to folksy, and switched record labels, but ultimately ended that career and turned to the children's music she now does.
Stylistically, Las Cosas Que He Visto belongs more with her adult albums than her teen albums, but its packaging still takes after the earlier releases; it's her last album to use the angular "Tatiana" logo on the cover (her later adult albums had no particular logo style for her name, while her children's albums adopted a new logo, curvy and colorful, with stars), and it wasn't until her following album that she put in liner notes saying "Yesterday a girl, today a woman." Those who make a big deal about the opposition of art and commerce would probably argue that any singer who has a logo is more of a product than an artist. This doesn't fully hold water, as many practitioners of the fine arts have had distinctive signatures which served as logos just as much as any commercial trademark. Nevertheless, it is true that her albums from the periods in which her name is shown in a logo style were the most commercially successful, while the ones without a logo were the most artistically experimental. Infer what you will from this.
It's indicated in the credits of this album (as with some of her other albums from her teen and adult phases) that it was recorded in Milan (Italy) and Madrid (Spain). This indicates that Tatiana is a jet-setter who gets around a lot; she's native to Mexico and lives there now, but was actually born in the United States while her father was studying at the University of Pennsylvania (he ultimately got a doctorate there). Her parents' websites (they both have them) indicate that she was taken on trips to Europe and elsewhere from an early age, so she has a varied, cosmopolitan experience. She speaks and understands English as well as Spanish, but hasn't done much English singing; her singing voice seems to be better in Spanish because that comes more natural to her. Incidentally, her mother (who has been a TV host herself) recently ran for mayor of a Mexican county (in the Monterrey area), but lost because she wasn't a member of new president Fox's party, which swept most elections in 2000. (At least Mexico had a new president following its election day, something the United States hasn't managed yet...)
Here are the tracks on this album:
1) Chicos, Chicos (Boys, Boys): Don't turn your stereo too loud when you start up this CD, or you'll be startled by the abrupt "Huh Huh Huh" burst that starts this track. It's followed by Tatiana saying "Chicos" in a playful voice, followed by a burst of laughter, then the tune gets going. It's an energetic dance number. Though it's in Spanish, she does say a few English words, like "Chicos, I love you!"
2) Las Cosas Que He Visto (The Things That I've Seen): The title track. The music video for this showed her going through various neighborhoods seeing needy and homeless people all around, in an apparent attempt at showing social conscience. Actually, the social activist role wasn't new to her, since the duets she did a few years earlier with Johnny Lozada (a former Menudo member) on her Chicas de Hoy album were part of an international campaign to discourage teen sex, supported and promoted by population control organizations (Tatiana was interviewed by John Stossel on ABC's 20/20 about this in 1986). "Las Cosas Que He Visto" is a ballad sung in a sad tone, with melodramatic music.
3) Maldita Soledad (Cursed Loneliness): More pleasant-sounding than the title would indicate, this is a moderately catchy song.
4) Contra La Pared (Against the Wall): A song with a lot of percussion and relatively little melody, she sings this with a concerned, but not quite panicky, voice.
5) Me Mata Salir (It Kills Me to Leave): This one has frenzied-sounding vocals and emotionally laden music, but like the last track, it has more percussion than melody.
6) Radio: Well, this one's got a melody, but it's mostly a few notes that keep repeating to the one-word main chorus. Her vocals are very energetic and forceful, like nothing's going to get in her way. There's a rap in the middle, with a male voice speaking in English.
7) Como Te Quiero (How I Want You): The most melodic song on the album, a ballad sung in a soft, slow, sweet tone.
8) De Sol A Sol (From Dawn to Dusk): The title is literally "From sun to sun," but its colloquial meaning is "from dawn to dusk" or all day long. It's been used several times as a song title; this song has nothing in common with the song of the same name by Salserin, which was played frequently as a music video on Tatiana's children's show when it was aired by Univision (it's not presently on the air in the United States, though it continues in Mexico). This song has energetic vocals to a pounding beat.
9) El y Tu (He and You): A song that starts off pretty soft, but builds up by the time it reaches its chorus.
10) Fuego en la Piel (Fire in the Skin): A fast and forceful song, with a slightly catchy chorus.
In all, I can't fault the vocals or the music; they're all performed very well. Still, there's not a really great hook anywhere; some of the songs are mildly catchy, but nothing more.
I felt the same about her following album, Vientos en Libertad, when I first reviewed it, but some of the songs there have grown on me since, leading me to go back and bump it from three stars to four. Maybe the same will happen with this one too, but for now I'll put it at three stars because nothing on it really grabbed me.
By the way, for those of you who don't understand Spanish, my title for this review means "The things I have heard."
Recommended:
Yes
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dtobias
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Member: Daniel Tobias
Location: Boca Raton, FL
Reviews written: 167
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A programmer and Internet developer who's been a "computer geek" for over 20 years now.
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