I have been jumping around a lot on my reviews of Alejandra Guzman, but in our quest to finish up discographies of various artists, we are going back to plug in the holes of our reviews. We have finished the first four albums of Ms. Guzman with our review of Flor De Papel and now were are on to Libre.
After such a strong hit with Alejandra’s fourth album, she doesn’t waste any time jumping into a new album and a new sound. Libre jumped her career to a new level, allowing her to escape the lower-end promotion of Fonovisa and elevate her sound and music with the backing of RCA, who was kicking ass in the early ’90s. With Fonovisa, I think they limited Alejandra to what she could do and not do because of their strong ties to the industry. While the writers of her music didn’t change, I think she had more pull and influence into what she wanted to sing. Â Alejandra had always had a strong preference for blues music, and ballad songs such as “Dime Adios” and “Angeles Caidos” allowed the queen of rock to show off her soul with heavily blues-influenced sounds.
The most popular song from the album is, “Mirala, Miralo” which is still one of the most popular songs to this day in Alejandra’s live performances. The song greatly combines rock and pop, which took her to a more international level than Fonovisa could ever do for Alejandra. I agree that the switch in record companies help Alejandra achieve international stardom. Sadly, it also took her to the stars – both good and bad. During this era, I originally lost my undying love for her. It was probably a combination of reasons, but ultimately being able to come back to the music later – I can say Libre really is the album that pushed her to the sound and style that the fans love today.
Many of the tracks could literally be on new albums today and you would feel like they are fresh and relevant today; this bodes well for the longevity of Alejandra and her music. I think the only track from this album that I could leave is “Cuenta Conmigo.” Overall, Libre is an album that I believe can serve as a good diving board to Alejandra’s music.
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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