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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Patricia Manterola--the next Gloria Estefan, maybe?, June 12, 2002
Having first seen Patricia Manterola doing guest vocal duties on an Alessandro Safina concert on TV, the two questions on my mind were: does she have an album of her own out, and does she sound better on it? Face it, the impression I got of her was, "Yeah, she has a nice bod, but is that it, because vocally, she don't quite cut it?"Well, upon listening to Que El Ritmo No Pare, I'll say she acquits herself well enough and I jumped the gun a bit on my original assessment. She gets into first gear with the first two songs, but then, she brings on la sonido latino. To spice things off, check out the Latin-flavored dance-techno of "Ojos Negros." I haven't heard anything this infectious and Latin since Miami Sound Machine's "Conga" and "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You." Other songs on the dancing side are "Necesito Tu Amor" "Bandidos," and "Libre." The other superlative shaker is the dance salsa of "When 'U' Move Like That" with its quick-paced drums, chorus, and a backing vocals going "hey hey," it just can't miss. OK, lovey ballad time, and on "Quiero Que Quieras Volver," which is comparable to a Celine Dion-style ballad, she does a bang-on job. She tops that with "Take My Heart," which could easily become a breakthrough single for her due to her vocal proximity to Gloria Estefan. As for her other English language songs, well, she isn't bad. She has R&B stylings in "I'll See You Again" and gets into Ricky Martin-like pop in "Tell You, Tell Me" and "The Rhythm," which is the English version of the title track and which is repeated in two bonus football cheer versions. Musically, she's close to Gloria Estefan than Shakira or Selena. Vocally, Manterola comes off as a second-rate Gloria Estefan, but with less of a range. She's also superior to J-Lo, both musically and vocally. With a little more vocal fine tuning, she might break through in the U.S. Thing is, she faces stiff competition from the incomparable Shakira and Paulina Rubio, whose debut has not surfaced as of this writing. She has no problem baring her navel on the back cover, which goes back to the good figure thing I mentioned earlier. Good job, Patricia.
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