Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 08/08/1995
Run Time: 38:09
After years of under-the-radar album releases and a regional following at best,
Miami Sound Machine rocketed to mainstream recognition with one song,
"Conga." That one song changed everything for the group, especially lead singer
Gloria Estefan, who suddenly became a
pop star by default. So when it came time to release the follow-up to
Primitive Love, the album that had spun off
"Conga," the
Miami Sound Machine billing was changed to the more marketable "
Gloria Estefan and
Miami Sound Machine" (and an album later, just
Gloria Estefan). Thankfully, the change of billing is the biggest change from
Primitive Love to
Let It Loose. The unabashed
dance-pop remains, most importantly the token romantic
ballads and
dance songs (the often goofy album filler remains too, of course). If you really want to analyze the albums relative to one another, you'll find that
Let It Loose essentially is a rewrite of
Primitive Love -- almost song for song, in fact, with a very catchy
pop song opening the album, followed by the title track, a romantic
ballad, some side-closing filler, a second-side-opening
dance song, some filler, another token
ballad, and then some more filler to close out the album. But this is precisely why
Let It Loose is such a great little album. You see,
Primitive Love had been a mid-'80s
dance-pop gem as far as mid-'80s
dance-pop goes, and
Let It Loose is a marked improvement. For instance, the slight misfire of
"Body to Body" is now the bull's-eye
pop of
"Betcha Say That," the pretty-good
ballad "Words Get in the Way" is now the really good
"Can't Stay Away from You," and so on. The one exception is
"Rhythm Is Gonna Get You," which isn't quite on a par with
"Conga," but then again, that's raising the bar awfully high. In any event, listeners ate up every spun-off single, all five of them, which was more than enough to drive the album well into the
Billboard 200 Top Ten. Its appeal and popularity aside,
Let It Loose is all the more special because it marks the end of
Miami Sound Machine in name as well as sound. When
Estefan would return with
Cuts Both Ways in 1989, she'd drastically shift her sound toward
adult contemporary, and while that opened up a new and lucrative market for her to tap with much success, it meant the end of goofball filler like
"Love Toy" and
bubblegum delights like
"1-2-3." ~Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
Cart 0 items
Listen
