Rating:
Genre:
Latin
Release Date: 11/08/2005
If one's only exposure to
Latin music in 2005 was a
Latin radio station on the East Coast, it would be easy to assume that the musical diet of most Latinos living in the United States consisted primarily of
reggaeton,
bachata,
merengue, and
salsa romantica -- and those are indeed the styles that appealed to Caribbean Latinos in 2005. But nationwide, the U.S.' biggest area of regional
Latin music -- in terms of pure sales -- was still regional Mexican music. To say that regional Mexican music (the
pop stuff as well as the more hardcore or traditional stuff) was ultra-competitive in 2005 would be a major understatement; there were countless newcomers yearning to be the next
Lupillo Rivera or the next
Priscila. But if anyone can break a new (or relatively new) regional Mexican act, it is
Fonovisa -- the label that, in October 2005, released
Así Como Me Ves,
Lidia Avila's first album for
Fonovisa after providing a self-titled disc for
Sony in 2004. This 33-minute CD isn't hardcore Mexican music; rather,
Avila mines the same
grupero/
Latin pop waters as
Ana Bárbara and numerous others.
Así Como Me Ves is, pure and simple, a sentimental
Latin pop album with Mexican overtones. One will hear some
norteńo accordion here and some
mariachi trumpet there -- and the influence of Mexican-style
cumbia (as opposed to South American
cumbia done in a Colombian, Bolivian, or Argentine way) is also present. But when all is said and done, this slick, glossy effort is very much a
Latin pop album -- not hardcore
norteńo, hardcore
mariachi, or hardcore
ranchera. And while
Así Como Me Ves isn't in a class with the best
grupero that
Ana Bárbara has had to offer, it is a decent and generally pleasant example of sentimental
Latin pop with
el sabor mexicano.
~Alex Henderson, All Music Guide
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