Review Summary: You would stand by me forever Enrique, but I don't think I can stand you anymore.
Enrique Iglesias, the Spanish heart-throb that has taken ‘your breath away’ many times before with his gorgeous looks, those steamy music videos and of course
that voice has decidedly adventured out of the norm and released his first Spanish spoken album – well, half in English and half in Spanish –
Euphoria. Enrique explained that this was a great idea seeing as, “The US is now the biggest market for Spanish songs, so this is an experiment.” Enrique has always featured the Spanish language in his music i.e. “Bailamos” yet, having whole songs in Spanish will most likely deter some listeners and turn them away. It can get quite frustrating when stumbling across the Spanish spoken songs-- and this is a sentiment for the
Euphoria as a whole. It’s just so gosh darn frustrating.
The first single from the album ‘I Like It’ is a poppy rave, that is more of a dance anthem than anything Spanish. The sound is unmistakably the trademark up tempo Iglesias sound, yet still manages to sneak in a sample of Lionel Ritchie’s ‘All Night Long,’ which must be said, is no mean feat, yet completely destroys the vibe of the song. As
Euphoria flows on the tracks float in between the ‘Hero’ era Enrique, the modern up-tempo Spanish sound of ‘Bailamos’ Enrique and the new “I’m a down with the cool kids” rave Enrique. This mixing and matching of songs really doesn’t fit the criteria of the way a pop record should run, especially when half of the tracks can’t be understood – if you can’t speak Spanish. The constant mixing and matching of tempo’s like on “Heartbeat” makes it sound like it’s been through a blender. Changing from slow piano ballad to a hideous sounding dance tune, “Heartbeat” does everything wrong, in a sense that the hook of the song is probably the least catchy part of it and Enrique vocals are completely bland, coming off monotone.
Lyrically things haven’t changed over the years, with the basis of the lyrics focussing on heartbreak or love, which is shown in “Why Not Me”:
“Why oh why tell me why not me
Why oh why we were meant to be
Baby I know I could be all you need
Why oh why oh why
I wanna love you
If you only knew how much i love you
So why not me”
Who would have thought? Enrique can’t get any!
Euphoria is really a mixed bag of a record that tries a little too hard at being something different, tries a little too hard at recapturing the glory of the past and tries a little too hard capturing a new fan base. All this is too hard to garner in one single record. In essence, Enrique’s experimentation for writing an album that is that little bit
different is an utter failure, yet the guest spots such as Usher’s on “Dirty Dancer” gives the album some highlights as the mix of rave like dance beats, a decent hook in the chorus and some lovely vocal work from Usher make it worth listening to again.
Euphoria is just to samey, just to tiresome and just too boring. Instead of trying to create an album that will ‘wow’ a new audience - that obvious fails in that aspect - Enrique should go right back to focussing on getting Jennifer Love Hewitt back in bed.
