With the smash hit that Mariah's debut was, she knew... and everyone else knew, she had to keep that quality up.
Even though Emotions is only Mariah’s second album, she started off the rollout with a career standout with the title track of the album as the lead single, which has really become a signature song for Mariah whenever she performs her older work. The album is very emotional, that’s a shocker. But it’s true, for the entire runtime on the album, you get emotional ... read more

Mariah was already well invested to the music industry, being a back up singer for Brenda K. Starr in the late 80's and having a demo tape at hand at any given possibility to get a record deal. And Brenda, being a supportive friend, invited her a party and Mariah brought her demo tape, who she gave it to the head of Columbia Records.
She finally gets her record deal and begins working on the album almost immediately. Everyone involved in the creation of this album wanted it to be perfect, ... read more

I was already worried when she announced the album's release date, we really just got off the train from Short n' Sweet and already we have a new album, (which if I'm being honest feels more like an extended EP/mini album but I digress,) that has really in my opinion little to no depth to it.
To start off with the announcement, of course we have the album artwork controversy, which was just fully so unnecessary but I'll save that for another day... anyways! I liked the ... read more

Ok so, for the past few days I have been playing nonstop on the new Switch 2, meaning 600 dollars down the drain and my free time being spent on playing Pokémon, but I finally have gotten around to my final Shakira record, so here are my thoughts!
To start off with the things I liked, I really love the type of sound she used for this record has, it goes from very dance pop, to some slight pop rock and to a very traditional regional Mexican genre, which I appreciated the different genres ... read more

After the massive let down that self titled was, I was excited to finally move on to something a little bit more refined, and luckily this was that. This album had hits after hits, I practically could not/still cannot escape these songs especially when going to my nearby Mexican barber shop, songs like Chantaje, Perro Fiel, and La Bicicleta were staples during this time for me and just bring back a tidal wave of nostalgia.
This album takes heavy influence from Latin music and reggaeton which ... read more

She wasn't just chasing shadows, she was also chasing trends.
I am going to be extremely blunt, I do not enjoy this record. I found it to be extremely basic and so unlike the Shakira I know that she can be, and worse of all, I was bored, and if you know me, the most offensive thing you can do to me musically is be boring!
I may be sounding harsh but I just know her potential and she can do so much better than... whatever this was, I mean come on we just came off Sale el Sol a remarkable ... read more

Sale el Sol is definitely one of my favorite Shakira records, it incorporates the rock elements from Pies Descalzos and Donde Estan Los Ladrones and the dance pop elements from the Oral Fixation series and She Wolf in such a great way!
So like almost always I knew a song beforehand, being Loca, that was a hit and still is, unfortunately I did not know of the other singles during this records release, so practically it was a whole new experience to me. To start off, let us state the obvious ... read more

So here we have the first Shakira record where I pretty much knew nothing about it, yes including She Wolf which I did not hear of until probably more than ten years after this album's release...
I had many mixed feelings about this record when I originally heard it, a lot of the tracks just did not stick with me (including a certain track seven that aged horribly lyrically but I digress!) But as of my recent listen I found myself absolutely loving this record and just how incredibly wild ... read more

Out of all of her albums to this point this is actually the record I knew the least about, really only knowing of course Hips Don't Lie. And fun fact, whenever this song came on once I saw the album cover for the first time and was also actually I saw Shakira for the first time and I was gagged seeing this photo and how "risqué" she looked, a moment forever imbedded in my mind.
Ok enough of that, what about the music?
So unlike to Volume 1 it takes more influences from ... read more

It's my birthday and I am celebrating it with Shakira, what's a better way to spend my evening?
Here we continue what I consider the golden age of Shakira, starting with of course the forever iconic Laundry Service. Fijación Oral is definitely one of her many career highlights in the 2000's, spawning some of my all time favorite Shakira tracks, even to this day!
This record as you would assume is the first part of two to the Oral Fixation series, which I just adore as a ... read more

Possibly one of the most iconic albums released in the 2000's, Laundry Service is Shakira's first English project with every new track besides Te Dejo Madrid and Que Me Quedas Tu being fully in English. Sonically, it is very similar her previous two projects, having a heavy influence on Spanish rock and world music influences, such as a the final track, Que Me Quedas Tu, having a sitar riff in the beginning of the track. There also are some dance pop elements included in tracks like ... read more

This to me is probably my most nostalgic Shakira album. I remember as a kid just listening to so many of these songs on the radio with my mom in her 2009/10 white Kia Soul with songs like Ciega Sordomuda, Si Te Vas, Inevitable, Tu and Ojos Asi always playing during any sort of car ride where we had the foreign radio on, which was almost always.
This album really gets into some classic Shakira-isms, the very deep vocals and her yells just add so much personality to this record and really ... read more

If you were a Hispanic kid from the 2000's, chances are your parents constantly played the Latin radio whenever you were in the car, and there would be, of course, Shakira. She was constantly played on those stations as well as many other iconic artists who made similar music like Selena or Luis Miguel. So I unknowingly had a little bit of knowledge with this album, especially with songs like Estoy Aqui and Antologia.
The record itself is surprisingly not her debut though, she had ... read more

Marina's first project in four years and I've been starving...
I've been following the releases up to this album, somewhat. The only single I have listened to in full was the lead, being Butterfly, the other singles released afterwards I ended up skipping out on being Cupid's Girl and Cuntissimo, mostly as to not spoil the album beforehand, but from the snippets I listened to made me so excited for the actual release.
As for the actual album itself, POP is a very fun ... read more

Ancient Dreams was my first Marina record I actually experienced the release of as a fan of her music, and what an album to start off this decade! After the mixed reception that Love + Fear got, it really seems like she wanted a return back to form musically, and go back to a more refined version of her older work, specifically Froot.
This record takes some heavy influence from the 80's, as pretty much what everyone else was doing around this time, but what really helped her differentiate ... read more

Love + Fear is Marina's first project after a short hiatus, most notably the project that introduced her new stage name, dropping The Diamonds and simply going by her first name. This definitely marked a significant change to her style and artistry inside her music, do I personally think this affected her entire career afterwards? Not really, after this hiatus I believe that she was just at a crossroads sonically, opting to be much more mainstream and not bring in her own charm as a decent ... read more

Froot is one of Marinas most interesting projects, being her first and only self written and self produced project. And this, for me at least, really helped her grow a lot as an artist and helped her break away from her notoriety from being a mainly electronic artist, as she incorporates many different genres like pop rock, disco, and a somewhat island reggae sound. This really felt like Marina experimenting and really just proving at how artistically gifted she is in so many ways.
And this ... read more

Like many people, I discovered Marina through this album, was I like 7 or 8 years late? Yes but that's besides the point...
Electra Heart was and is Marina's most popular record, also practically being her breakthrough project, and when listening to it, it is really understandable.
Sonically, Electra Heart has a similar direction that The Family Jewels had, being primarily electro pop. But unlike that record, the synths are much more controlled and feel less wild, as well as ... read more

Marina has been an artist I have loved since a little bit before the release of Man's World. I adored her music but for some reason the album I started with was Electra Heart, which makes sense at the time as it is her most popular record and I used to just randomly choose an order when listening to an artists discography, kind of how I started Taylor's with Lover instead of her self titled debut.
Anyways I eventually did get to this album after loving Electra Heart at first listen, ... read more

The most recent 5SOS album and really what a great record to end things off for now!
I remember being around for the releases of the pre-released singles, and to be honest I really did not pay much attention to them until the actual release of the album. I have vague memories of maybe listening to Older beforehand but really I did wait for the most part to get all of this new material at once. And when it was initially released I was really shocked at how much I enjoyed practically almost every ... read more