scapp70's Full Review: Tributo a Queen: Los Grandes del Rock en Espanol
What can I say about Tributo A Queen? The opinion I usually walk away with after listening to any tribute album is a poor one. If you haven't guessed it yet, Tributo A Queen is a tribute album with all Latino musicians. I'm not saying that this a bad thing, I do like just a toddler's handful of songs here, but there are too many things that have gone wrong on most of the songs on this CD.
I guess I'll start things looking at the bad side of this CD, this way we could end off this review on a high note. Another One Bites The Dust/(Otro Muerde El Polvo) performed by Illya Kuryaki and The Valderamas is one of best examples of the worst songs on this CD. The verses are now Spanish spoken hip-hop. That may not be a bad thing to some people, but it's not what a Queen fan could be expected to swallow.
We Are The Champions (Somos Campeones) performed by La Unioin tries to stay too faithful to the original and so the end result sounds very wimpy. I was expecting a more tropical feel, an authentic Latino type of groove - this comes off as boring and tired. Bohemian Rhapsody (Rap-Soda Y Bohemia) performed by Molotow is one of the worst travesties in music history. The song is turned into Latino rap-metal. The band uses some samples from the original recording. The operatic part is so horrible, it's too bad it isn't funny at least.
All Dead, All Dead (Se Fue, Se Fue) performed by Fito Paez is sort of borderline for me. It's exciting that someone would pick such an obscure Queen song to cover, but the vocal is a little too whiny for me, and the soft acoustic guitar arrangement doesn't stand out enough. Maybe if they played up that angle a bit more during the verses the way they do during the middle break, it would have salvaged the song perhaps.
Under Pressure (Presionando) performed by Fobia stays very faithful to the original Queen/David Bowie arrangement, except with the record scratching and laser gun noises it gets annoying very quickly. Love of My Life (Cuando Te Vas) is originally a very emotive love ballad with classical overtones and one of my favorites from Queen. I figured that this song would be an easy song to cover and result in a wonderful homage. The song gets boring rather quickly maybe due to the vocal by Paulo Ricardo, which sounds mediocre.
It's A Kind Of Magic (Cierta Magia) is a song I didn't like when it was performed by Queen. Here on the tribute album when it's performed by Angelica I dislike it even more so. She stays very faithful to the original by Queen, his voice seems unbearingly loud to my ears and monotone. I know there are some people that like the song by Queen, maybe they would appreciate this more than I do.
Well, there is an upside to this album as well.
We Will Rock You (Nosotros Te Conmoveremos) performed by El General is interesting. Actually it's pretty cool that they gave the song a Reggae beat and besides the chorus, all of the verses are sung in Spanish.
I really do like These Are The Days Of Our Lives (Dias Que No Volveran) performed by Antonio Vega. The acoustic guitars sound like floating on a cloud, and the background female voices add to the ambiance. The chorus sounds a bit awkward, but the verses more than make up for it.
Some Day One Day (Algun Dia) by Soda Stereo is really good. It has a feel similar to that of Latino band The Iguanas. I think it's great that Soda Stereo decided to cover such an obscure Queen song (originally from Queen II). The guitar solo is almost exact and it surprisingly fits the type of groove perfect. Save Me (Salvame) is performed by Soraya. The chorus sounds almost religious here. It is very faithful to the power ballad that was originally recorded by Queen. I Want To Break Free (Como Librarme De Ti) performed by Ketama sounds really authentic. Antonio Carmona delivers a great vocal and the musical arrangement has those great classical Spanish guitars especially in the solo.
Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Casi Loco Por Tu Amor) performed by Pablo Dagnino the first few times I listened to the song. I decided to throw it in the good column because the song is still fun like the original and stays very faithful to the original version from Queen. Pablo provides a good vocal, complete with that retro rockabilly effect on his double tracked voice. I've heard many covers of this song, and for some reason it's a hard song to cover while trying to get your version to contain the same energy as the original, maybe because Freddie's voice is so deep and relaxed in the original that when trying to emulate that it gets lost in the translation.
Here is another song that I couldn't decide if I liked it on first listen and it needed a bunch of listens before I could be truthful in my opinion. Somebody To Love (Alguien A Quien Amar) is given a totally different arrangement strolling nowhere near the original by Queen. This is performed by Aleks Syntek & La Gente Normal. There are a lot of the lyrics that are sung in English here although all of the verses are in espaņol. Aleks Syntek gives a great vocal performance and he and the band turn the song from a quasi-Gospel song into a Christian Rock Contemporary song. It sounds more like a DC Talk type of song now except in Spanish.
Now the question is, no matter how good the good songs are and how much of a Queen fan you are, does anybody really need this tribute album? Well, I bought this album in 1997 and listened to it a couple of times back then. I recently went back and listened to this again recently a few times and I have discovered some good and bad sides to this CD. I also discovered that no matter how great the good side is, I probably wouldn’t listen to this CD again. Like the title of this epinion reads, this CD is OK - but is it necessary? This is taking up precious CD space and maybe it shouldn't be.
The songs -
1. Another One Bites The Dust - Illya Kuryaki/The Valderramas
2. Play The Game - Aterciopelados
3. We Are The Champions - La Union
4. We Will Rock You - El General
5. These Are The Days Of Our Lives - Antonio Vega
6. Some Day, One Day - Soda Stereo
7. Save Me - Soraya
8. Bohemian Rhapsody - Molotov
9. All Dead, All Dead - Fito Paez
10. I Want To Break Free - Ketama
11. Under Pressure - Fobia
12. Love Of My Life - Paulo Ricardo
13. Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Pablo Dagnino
14. Somebody To Love - Alex Sytek & La Gente Normal
15. A Kind Of Magic - Angelica
~~~~~~~~~~~~~For more Queen CD Epinions from Scapp70~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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