More good Spanish music for all ages
Written: Oct 31 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A good followup to her first Brinca album.
Cons: Overall, I don't think I found all of the songs quite as catchy as some of her other albums.
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| dtobias's Full Review: Brinca II by Tatiana |
This review wraps up the month of October for me, a month in which I have written an Epinions review every day. I don't know if you consider this a trick or a treat. However, Brinca II, Tatiana's 1996 followup album to her debut children's-music album Brinca, is definitely a treat. As usual for her, it provides well-performed and well-produced Spanish-language music suitable for all ages. Her songs are good for anyone who is learning Spanish, or for anyone who likes good upbeat, singable, danceable music. Until recently, you could also catch Tatiana every weekend on the Univision TV network, but they've taken her off the air there, though her show is still aired in her native Mexico on the Televisa network.
As with her first Brinca album, the songs here are traditional children's songs in Mexico, some of which are also familiar tunes to English-speakers even if they're not familiar with the Spanish lyrics.
The songs on this album are:
1) Estrellita: A dance-pop rendition of the Spanish version of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." This is one of the songs from her first two children's albums that provided themes and elements for her TV show. There's a star-shaped puppet character "Estrellita" who appears sometimes, attached to a wall apparently symbolizing a star in the sky (but actually looking like it's manacled to the wall by its pointy arms). But more generally, stars are a major design element for her, including a large star on the front of her costume (of which she has an endless supply, in different colors and patterns, never seeming to wear the same one twice). She also wears a star pendant around her neck, and stars turn up in lots of other places on her show and her album covers. In Spanish as in English, the word for star ("estrella") can mean a star in the sky, a star-shaped design element, a person who excels at something, or an entertainment celebrity, and I think her use of stars is intended to evoke all of these meanings.
2) Martinillo: Her only tri-lingual song, this adaptation of the French song "Frère Jaque" has verses in Spanish, English, and French. (For lyrics to this song in some other languages, see: http://ingeb.org/Lieder/bruderja.html)
3) Una Rata Vieja: (An Old Rat) Another song that inspired a character for her TV show, and another of her animal songs; she's covered many species by now. This has a very similar tune to "Lindo Pescadito" from her previous album, but that one is about a fish while this one is about a rat.
4) Amo a To: A very catchy dance-style song. Like several of her other songs, it's got a repetitive chorus: "Matarile-rile-rile, matarili-rile-rón." In the lyrics, she picks somebody named Rosa as her page, then grants her increasingly exalted titles ranging from secretary to Queen.
5) Pollito Chicken: This song is intended to teach Spanish-speaking children some English words, by singing the Spanish and English words together for such things as "chicken" and "door".
6) Hockey-Pockey: The "hokey-pokey" song. It's got nothing to do with ice hockey, which I don't think they play in Mexico.
7) Witzy Witzy Araña: A version of "Itsy Bitsy Spider". (If you're trying to collect all recorded versions of "Itsy Bitsy Spider", Carly Simon has one on her Coming Around Again album.)
8) El Piojo y la Pulga: (The Louse and the Flea) Even insects can be the subject of her animal-kingdom songs. (Note that the preceding song isn't an insect song, since spiders are arachnids.)
9) Potpourri Tradi-Dance: A medley of several traditional songs. Some of the tunes sound like some of her other songs, but with different lyrics. The "San Miguel" song sounds like part of "La Vibora de la Mar" (from her previous album), for instance. I think traditional songs sometimes recycled melodies from one another.
10) Potpourri A Dormir: A lullaby medley.
11) Estrellita (remix): Another version of the opening track, with more dance beat and sound effects. The vocals are more buried in this mix.
Now I've reviewed all of Tatiana's children's albums. I still have some of her "adult" pop left to review, if Epinions ever gets around to adding the albums that have supposedly already been added to the Muze database at my request. (There are a couple of Tatiana albums in the Epinions list that I haven't reviewed, but they're ones I haven't managed to find yet, and I don't believe in reviewing music that I haven't listened to!)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dtobias
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Daniel Tobias
Location: Boca Raton, FL
Reviews written: 168
Trusted by: 97 members
About Me:
A programmer and Internet developer who's been a "computer geek" for over 20 years now.
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