Matt Cibula and I have a disagreement about Robi Draco Rosa

..the less i liked him. there's a little a bit of ricky martin in there, yeah ( a very very very little hard rock), but more robbie williams or george michael and (especially) mana (who aren't all that good), and WAY more sting and, uh, seal for crissakes. and NO fucking hooks, man...even the song with loud guitars in it isn't very catchy! - c

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From: Matt Cibula

I agree with everything you say, except for the not-liking part. I think it's a very strange sort of pop experiment, an attempt to marry that latin-pop drippy-ballad impulse to a weirder more avant-garde sensibility. For me, the flamenco touches and the string weirdness (much more John Paul Jones than Brian Wilson or Sting in the VDPark arrangements) take the sappiness away, mostly, but I can see what you're saying. And yeah, I think he's written enough hooks for Ricky that he was trying to get away from riff-based music here -- for me, his voice (actually, the layering and occasional disagreement of his voices) is what he's relying on, and I think it's a good voice, sexy in kind of an overheated overbearing jesus-will-you-just-CHILL sort of way. I don't hear Sting here, really, because Sting is "easy to take" whereas this stuff is so tropical and horny it sounds like it's everything he can do to stop humping the furniture. Which I appreciate, because I'm feeling like that these days. I dig the dissonances more than the harmonies, but the tracks where they come together I dig the most.

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from: Chuck Eddy

hmm...i don't even think it's that weird. when HAVEN'T drippy latin ballads been married to artsy sound effects or whatever? its' a kind of proudction that's way more common in romance langauge music than english language music, and t doesn't go out on a limb the way, say, mylene farmer or jeane mas (say) used to,, it doesn't even seem all that original to me; i mean, the production stuff isn't that far from a mana or eros ramazzoti or even jon secada record, as far as i can tell. i mean, i DO like those little "touches" (which ALSO remind me of seal, by the way, who i always despised); I just wish there were songs to go with them. And i really can't can't stand the guy's voice; it's just ethereal in this really affected, airy, groundless way that i know some people find sexy, but, um, i just don't...
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Chuck: Eddy
Subject: guess what i'm saying is that for a sexy guy...

..he sounds really REIGNED IN, or controlled to me. he's sort of a tight-ass. Like, closer to kd lang than celine dion or whoever. not a good thing in my book.

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From: Matt Cibula

Hmmm. I haven't listened to it in a week or so, but I'll try it again and see what I think. I haven't really heard any Mylene Farmer or Jeane Mas, so I don't know what that's all about; I just think he comes off as creepy and hyper and funner to listen to than not to listen to. I think these are real songs, with enough overlay of drift to make me always guess wrong about where they're headed. But maybe I'm remembering it wrong...nah, I think it's just difference in taste. As in, probably, you have good taste, and I shouldn't like this, but I do.

And no, I'm not saying that "romantic" music never has weird production touches. I'm just saying that I like the say this sounds, and I like this stuff a lot more than k.d.lang's "adult pop" phase, and you like Celine Dion a shitload more than I do. You and Seward, man, I swear, it's a Celine appreciation society! I can't listen to that shit with a ten foot pole.

Maybe there's my problem right there! I've been listening with a ten foot pole!

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From: Matt Cibula

And since when have Latin singers (esp. raised in the Menudo boy-band tradition) NOT been reined in? I see this as ebb and flow, trying to break free in the avant parts and then being afraid to really let himself go so reverting to "song", it's the Church and the Street, carrot and the stick, superego and id, etc.

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From: Chuck Eddy

Ricky (who I liked) sounded WAY less tightass. And I can thinks of LOTS of other Latin examples, male and female -- including Paulina Rubio and Saul Herndadez of Caifanes, for starters. In fact, that's part of what I LIKE about so much Latin music! To me, Rosa sounds way more anglo than Latin....which isn't to say Sting isn't a big vocal influence down there, because he is. But Kenny Chesney's album is more "tropical" than Rosa's is! (Though actually, frank kogan's the celine fan, not scott seward, as far as i know...)

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