Customer Reviews

Cuts Both Ways

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

CUTS BOTH WAYS is the very best of Gloria's albums. She was at the very top of her singing and writing abilities when she made this one. Every single song is excellent. The ballads are just sweet and beautiful. The few dance music songs have a latin flavor and are just plain fun.

Her work since this album has been hit and miss. This is the best!

Gloria Estefan experienced much success with her LET IT LOOSE album. In 1989,her second megahit album,CUTS BOTH WAYS,was released. The hits are HERE WE ARE,DON'T WANNA LOSE YOU,GET ON YOUR FEET and the title track. The latter does not appear on 1992's GREATEST HITS. Jon Secada made a few guest appearances on this album. The CD and cassette feature Spanish versions of OYE MI CANTO(Hear My Voice) and DON'T WANNA LOSE YOU. The latter's translation is SI VOY E PERDERTE. Imagine the Backstreet Boys doing their recording of the same title in Spanish(their song is completely different words and music). This is the last album to bear the artist as Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine. While on tour promoting this album,Gloria injured her back in a bus accident and successfully recovered. This happened in March 1990. Gloria and her band continued touring after the accident. Great album!

I'll give you three good reasons to buy this album:
HERE WE ARE is one of the most poignant ballads Gloria has ever written: the new love found from begining to sad end, with a positive look at a possible - although difficult - turn-it-into-friendship happy-ending.
YOUR LOVE IS BAD FOR ME: you love the guy, but you are distant from each other and you know he cheats on you, still you can't let go of this feeling...ever been in a long-distance relationship? if you had, listen to this and become the main role character off the song...
CUTS BOTH WAYS: the ending track of the whole CD. A semi-acoustic ballad, bittersweet and fighting, just unbelievably good!
And if that's not good enough you have 3 other Top 10 hits (including the Summer '89 # 1 single DON'T WANNA LOSE YOU) and some real party n up-tempo tracks (SAY and OYE MI CANTO).
A sureshot more mature album

For many Gloria Estefan came from a really dance fan base to a more pop-adult contemporary oriented audience. By her fourth album Gloria sounded more mature and experience. "Cuts Both Ways", is a peak album for Estefan, in name of fame, she was at her peak. No wonder this album is one of her best too. Don't Wanna Lose You" her 2nd #1 single is a classic track not only for Estefan but for the world of music, with a strong message and an amazing music background that made the song sound timeless. "Here We Are" why? this wasn't #1? is really strong and great. "Get On Your Feet" an uplifting song by miss Estefan that failed to reach the top 10, stopped at #11, but a great guitar background. "Oye Mi Canto" an extremely latin flavor song, sounds so espiritual and intimate, almos like a cry from the soul, great song, that didn't reach the top 40 unfairly, because is a great Estefan gem. "Cuts Both Ways" a third ballad it stopped before the top 40 too, but is no drop out, it's a keeper, great AC song. After all the mixture of refine latin beats, great lyrics, and a very rock album, "Cuts Both Ways" is one of the best albums of Gloria Estefan and band.

Wonderfully timeless album by an under-rated artist! Gloria should be a superstar! She writes and sings her own beautiful songs...with a touch of class.

"Here We Are" is a lush ballad that goes through all the stages of a relationship: finding that initial spark, falling in love, then breaking-up but still never losing the flame for that special someone. With lyrics like: "But no-one knows what's going on inside...and all the love I feel for you, is something I should hide"...Oy! I can't describe how much I love this song...it is so real...so personal...so relatable...

The titular song "Cuts Both Ways" is also another heartbreaking song about how two people can't live with each other...but can't live without each other. Gloria really pours her heart and soul into the chorus...I have lost count over the amount of times I have bawled my eyes out listening to this tune...so catchy is this song, it has reach the top of my iTunes Top 25 Playlist!...and I have over 8000+ songs!

If you are a hopeless romantic, please buy this album for these two songs alone.

..this album is great and I was happy to be able to find it on amazon.com

Gloria is such a wonderful talent. Her depth of range and character of her voice is not matched by many others. her slection of music is wonderful.

I love this album for more reasons than any human can understand fully, for reasons that go beyond Gloria and her voice and the music. Plus look at Gloria's face on the album cover. Isn't it enough to make you melt?

I'll say "Here We Are" was the 1st song of Gloria's that I really connected with. (I have sort of enshrined the "cassette single" of that song in a plastic protective case. I can't play the cassette anymore, 'cause it might break and I can't let that happen.) This song brought me rushing into Gloria's music with full force. Plus, when I hear Gloria's singing voice, I hear the timbre of the speaking voice of someone I know and love in my own personal world.

In the end, as a "review", I'd say that with most things, how much you "like" something will be determined by your own personal, unique characteristics that have been shaped by your life. So what I like may not be what you like, the depth of what I like may not be the depth of your "like", and likely won't be. Come to whatever you listen to musically and ask if it "speaks to you". This album speaks of love and loss and pain and even moments of release and just "fun". If you have felt any of these, you will have some connection to this album.

And Gloria's voice is unlike any other in music. I've listened to her voice evolve over the past 15-20 years. Her current singing voice (as of 2005-06) is deeper and a little more "sandy" as compared to this Album and earlier Albums...which is very light and smooth as a newborn's laugh. But of course, everyone ages. And still, even saying that her voice has changed, I'll say her voice is still creamy good.

"Cuts Both Ways" released in 1989 by Gloria Estefan, is the best album by Gloria that you will find. CBW is Gloria's first solo album, after recording with the Miami Sound Machine for 12 years. It includes a perfect balance of ballads & up-tempo dance songs. It includes the number 1 hit "Don't Wanna Lose You", my all-time favorite song, "Get On Your Feet", plus Hot 100 hits "Here We Are", "Cuts Both Ways" & "Oye Mi Canto (Hear My Voice)". It also includes two spanish songs "Si Voy A Perderte (Dont Wanna Lose You-spanish version)" & "Oye Mi Canto (spanish version)". Other songs include "Ay, Ay, I", "Say", "Think About You Now", "Nothin' New" & "Your Love Is Bad For Me". Here are the best songs on the 12-track "Cuts Both Ways" album by Gloria Estefan: BALLADS: "Here We Are" "Think About You Now" "Cuts Both Ways" UP-TEMPO-DANCE SONGS: "Get On Your Feet" "Nothin' New" "Say" Other albums by Gloria Estefan I reccomend: "Into The Light" "Greatest Hits" "Eyes Of Innocence" "Abriendo Puertas" "Destiny" Actually, I reccomend them all, but those are the best. Cuts Both Ways is a must-have! For more information on Gloria Estefan visit The GLORIA ESTEFAN Pages Like No Others! at: http://members.aol.com/espritxl/GloriaEstefan/index.html END

After the success of Let It Loose Gloria Estefan would obviously find favor with her label more as a solo artist than as a participating member of Miami Sound Machine so,honestly this wound up being yet another album with her own name listed above that of Miami Sound Machine. It doesn't matter;all of Estefan's albums feature more or less the same personal and it was obvviously expected that this album would be the success of the previous one. One thing to be sure of however is that the farther Estefan got into her career the poppier her music tended to become or,at least that's the aspect of her music that was emphasized. So therefore this is not one of her most adventerous outings strictly in terms of presentation while all the same trying to branch out rhythmically to a degree.

This album is by no means as electronic and synthesizer heavy as the previous album and uptempo tunes such as "Ay Ay I","Say","Nothing New" and both an English (partially anyway)and Spanish version of "Oye Mi Canto" all sound more like the latin percussion/Minneapolis sound hybrid popularized by Sheila E around this same time. So the music has a strong funk influence so that makes the uptempo music here some of the best she ever made,even on more tradition MSM type dance jams such as the hit "Get On Your Feet". The ballads "Here Wer Are" and "Don't Wanna Lose You" were both hits too but,in all honesty neither of them are as strong,destinctive or unique instrumentally as the ballads from the previous album and sound more like traditional radio pop than anything and,mainly are the reason why I deducted one star from this album.

A lot of people are of the opinion that this album is the best that Gloria/Miami Sound Machine ever recorded and in music terms it often is,especially when the tempo goes up and...well that could often be said for a lot of the music she makes. She always had a diverse pallet generally but her stock in trade,both vocally and musical terms were in rhythmic songs and in this particular case it's more apparent than ever considering how live instrumental-oriented this album is. After this album life for Estefan would change drastically after a near fatal tour bus accident and this would have a tremendous change on her personally as well as musically. But even here one could hear some changes coming to her sound as this particular chapter of her career came to a close.