Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Growing up "Barefoot", December 12, 2005
This is one of my fave records of all time...and I'm not even a Shakira fan! I came of age when Pies Descalzos exploded and it was like Shakira had taken my diary and poured all my thoughts and feelings into these songs. Shakira and I are about the same age,so she was around 16-17 when this record came out... I had my first love and my first heartbreak set to "Antologia", danced to "Estoy aqui" the first time I sneaked into a club, sang "Donde Estas corazon" at the top of my lungs with my gf's as we cruised the town when I "borrowed" my parents car(we thought we were sooo cool), and felt giddy with "Te espero sentada". One big chunk of the soundtrack of my life went with this record. I wish Shakira would make as heartfelt music as she did in Pies Descalzos...even with all the smoke and mirrors of her latter material, she still hasn't been able to duplicate the simple sincerity of this record.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Masterpiece that Even Shakira Cannot Surpass, January 29, 2008
This 1996 album best exemplifies why so many of us fell in love with Shakira Mebarak. This Catholic Lebanese-Colombian singer is best known for her belly-dancing routines and "Hips Don't Lie", but read this review to get to know the early Shakira better.
Reviewers mistakenly state that this is Shakira's debut album. Not so. This is her THIRD studio album, but the first on a major label. Her first two albums - "Magia" (from when she was 13), and "Peligro" (at age 15) were commercial disappointments, and consisted of worn, badly produced Spanish love songs.
But "Pies Descalzos" (translation - "Naked Feet") is where it all came together. This is my second favorite Spanish language album, right after Gloria Estefan's legendary "Mi Tierra".
Now more than a decade old, its timelessness and lyrical brilliance continue to dazzle and win new fans each passing year (its one of the highest selling Latin albums of all time, and still sells hundreds of thousands of copies every year). The secret behind it is simple - this is perhaps the only album to capture Shakira in all her honesty, without pretense or marketing drive to fuel her 'image'.
The result is a stripped-down, acoustic album with complete dedication to simplistic folk-tunes and some acoustic rock elements. The lyrics, even if you are not a native speaker, are the highlight. But up front is Shakira's beautiful voice. In my opinion, her voice peaked on this album and has never sounded as good.
"Estoy Aqui", the lead single, might be why people remember this, but the best songs are all toward the end of the album. Her finest moment here is "Vuelve", a shape-shifting, strange song that will get lodged in your subconscious without any effort on your part. This is stellar. As interesting is "Donde Esta Corazon", a plaintive love ballad where you can just imagine the artist sitting on her sofa with a lonely guitar. Beautiful.
The reason I say that this entire album is Shakira's best effort EVER, is because the CD she released right after this was more rock-oriented and commercial (in the best and worst ways). Later, of course, she bleached her hair blonde, went lighter, and started singing English songs. I do enjoy some of her English work, but they are not a patch on any of the songs here.
For longtime fans of Shakira, we still hold this album dear, because it defines the very best of her work, and reminds us of who she was before she started mass-marketing herself to be successful with North American audiences. Get a copy of this immediately to discover who she was when she started out - this is a classic, essential Spanish language album, and your collection is certainly incomplete without it.
Five Stars.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
She rocks, June 3, 2006
It's amazing how every song in this album sounds completely different from the others, yet they all retain shakira's unique blend of rhythms and soulful lyrics. The world knew who shakira was after the release of this album
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