Paradise

A victim of hidden marketing, I got my connection to this from my dance lessons. In the end there are only two good tracks on the album and the rest is more or less generic. Not one of my best buys. Beats Emilia any day, though...

#1 Paradise 9½

The reason to pick this record up in the record shop in the first place, familiar from entertaining maybe the best Marjut choreography of the whole season 02-03. It seems that I've read Jane Eyre a bit too much... :]

#2 Kiss Me Crazy 6

I just need to rip that beginning riff. Apart from that the track is quite boring and britneyish.

#3 Butterflies Don't Lie 6½

"It isn't love, you're just some guy" is probably the most describing line from this, because it isn't a hit, it's just some ballad. How did this stuff make it's way to track #3? And the heartbeats in the end, ugh.

#4 Tu amor 8

Rather powerful latino song, Paradise is a lot better, though. But why does she say "Mi cariño, mi amor, mi niño, mi corazon? Is she in love with her own son? Or do they really use son/daughter expressions in Spanish? Well, after all, they do say "obba" in Korean...

#5 Everlasting 10

If I'm not mistaken, this was composed by the same person as Steps' It's the Way You Make Me Feel? Anyway it certainly sounds like that. A kind of dance remix of ItWYMMF, can it be bad? No is the answer. Without this track I would scarcely own this CD.

#6 I Think I Love You 7½

The strangeness of this can be explained by the fact its from an ancient TV series - was it even The Partridge Family? Probably. It's quite hard to get a hold on this but I guess it's not that bad. In ESC this would be a certain null pointer... ;]

#7 Just an Old Boyfriend 7

I think this would be a lot better the way I first heard it, "Just another boyfriend". Generic American teen star pop, the non-r'n'b kind.

#8 Beggin' Me 7

This is something you could expect Maria to make you dance to, on her better days. Maybe that's why it gets a 7 instead of 6.

#9 All Over You 6

More Britney, less character.

#10 You Got Me 5

Just how nothing-saying can you get? Could I please skip even this one?

#11 I'm Not Anybody's Girl 8

A touch of something better here, probably the third best track of the album. But why this as the fourth single instead of the great Everlasting? I already see these reviews full of single rant...

#12 I'm Gonna Break Your Heart This Time 7½

Oh my, is this thing going to go bump bump bump in the night? Apparently not, but despite that the album seems to be taken a turn for the better.

#13 Intervention Divine 7

Does this really try to have some kind of a biblical theme? "Living in modern Babylon"? In any case the title doesn't describe the track too well and the end of the chorus is quite disappointing.

#14 Paraíso 9½

An experience quite like the one I got reviewing Nylon Beat's first album before this, a relief at the point of the album where the endless-seeming fillers give room to alternate versions. This one probably sounds better in Spanish because it doesn't have that horrible choir mispronouncing the lyrics...

#15 Eternamente 9½

Yeah sure it's the same great song - why a lower grade? The reason's quite simple, the backing singers pronouncing Spanish like it was English. Untolerable. What did they think singing "Itshöönämentshei"? Kaci herself certainly knows her words but her voice isn't enough to drown the abominations from beyond... The middle part where she says "eternamente" just by herself sounds like a blessing.

#16 Tu amor 8

It's natural that Spanish lyrics fit in into a song with a Spanish title, here there's no question which version sounds better. She even sounds like she was singing better here.