Two years after the release of her English language album, Border Girl, Paulina Rubio returns her to Latin roots with Pau-Latina. The seventh studio album was released in 2004 with the first single, “Algo Tienes.”
A lot of times, you have to look at what other artists are doing to understand why another artist does something. Paulina seemed like she was always one step behind what others are doing. A year earlier, Ricky Martin dropped his English attempts to go back to his roots with the Latin island music with great success. Paulina returns to her first language with Pau-Latina and has embraced more of the Mexican sounds with “My Friend, My Amigo”, “Ojala”, “Quiero Cambiarme”, “Baila Que Baila”, and my favorite track, “Dame Otra Tequila.”
The first few singles didn’t have those Latin beats, she still worked the club scene with songs like “Algo Tienes” and “Te Quise Tanto.” Those are classic Paulina songs and go down in history as some of her best songs. The record label did not promote the album as well as they could have at the time, they only released three singles, with the third being “Dame Otra Tequila.” Other albums went to five or six singles, Pau-Latina slowed down at the time the label attempted a fourth song, which got no attention.
The album has some seriously good music that didn’t get much love at the time of release. “Alma En Libertad” is a wonderful pop track that is such fun to sing. And “Volveras” is a combination of a ballad with a pop chorus. Such a wonderful song.
Overall, Pau-Latina has a handful of really good tracks that make it a fun listen. I recommend it, but I apologize for the rest of it that can be considered a little too themed.
Since that day, I have been study Latin pop and rock music and have become a Latin pop music historian through the publishing of articles, fanzine, and websites. My goal is to teach people about Latin pop music and the history behind it with my website, Siempre En Domingo.
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