Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 10
 A brilliant album!! November 3, 2007
Rebecca (England)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I haven't stopped playing this album since I got it, it is simply fantastic. No Creo En El Jamas is a good opener, upbeat with positive lyrics and one of several tracks with some fierce drums. The third track is Me Enamora, which I really wish had been released as a single in the UK 'cos I love it. The title track La Vida Es Un Ratico is going to have everyone with lighters in the air at his concerts for sure, you just have to sing along with it. Minas Piedras may well make you cry, I know I cried listening to this collaboration with Andres Calamaro telling of the horrific consequences of landmines. Tu Y Yo is a lovely song, one of Juanes' more romantic, celebratory songs. Bandera De Manos has two versions, one featuring Campino which is partially in German and the second is Juanes by himself doing the song all in Spanish and it's a great, anthemic album closer.
br / The DVD is good too, the first documentary is a look at Juanes' life and career so far, useful for those of us who only discovered him with the European release of Mi Sangre last year! We also get a look at how they made the Me Enamora video and the inspiration behind what is a really neat video. The final documentary looks at the individual songs and Juanes discusses how each one came about, what prompted him to write them, how they evolved. Overall the DVD is a really informative accompaniment to the album.
br / I strongly recommend La Vida Es Un Ratico to anyone who prefers their rock music with an international flavour and a social conscience - whether you understand the words or not, you'll still get something out of this album. I honestly can't find a track on here that I don't like, it is that good.
Simply Magnificent! February 24, 2008
Andrew Ross
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I am currently studying french and spanish at University and this is the main reason i have gone looking for foreign music to listen to. After being played Juanes duet with Nelly Furtado "Fotografía" from the "Un Día Normal" album, i had to check him out further. I bought the "Mi Sangre" album (the version with the bonus tracks) and i was hooked. I may be studying the language but i am far from fluent, and therefore am not going to pretend that i was, at first, attracted by the lyrics. However, one of the great things about Juanes is that, despite his magnificent voice, almost every word is clear, even when sung quickly (like at the start of "No Creo En El Jamas"), and after a couple of listens i found myself singing along fervently. Nor am i a musical expert, i simply know what i like, and I LOVED everything i heard on that Mi Sangre album. Inevitably i bought his previous two studio recordings and after being nothing but increasingly enthusiastic about what i heard, i eagerly awaited the realease of "La Vida...Es Un Ratíco". I was not disappointed. Again i stress if you are reading my review hoping for detailed song by song descriptions of musical techniques employed etc, then you will be disappointed because i haven't a clue. All i know is that i recommend this album, and all his other work, to anyone who enjoys upbeat, soft rock music. And if yu don't, buy it anyway, even if you don't speak spanish, so long as you do not allow that do pre-dispose you to disliking it, then i guarantee you will also love this Colombian rock-god! I sure hope he comes on tour to the UK, unlikley though! :-(
Love him!! November 5, 2007
cyd (UK)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
A friend suggested I buy this and I haven't stopped playing this since I bought it. The video on Youtube is fantastic. I'd recommend it unreservedly
Review November 29, 2007
tim (UK)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Born in Colombia, Juanes (Juan Esteban Aristizabal) has achieved the high profile of a pop idol coupled with the esteem tendered to a cultural hero due to his thoughtful and courageous stance against violence and injustice. His sales have been stratospheric, his presence on Billboard and other charts prolonged; the multiple Grammy winner has also racked up a growing presence in the Anglo press and media. Juanes learned to play guitar from his late father and grew up surrounded by traditional forms like cumbia, bolero, and guasca, which he would later update and make his own. After youthful experiments with heavy metal (which live on in his affection for roiling electric guitar breaks), he moved to Los Angeles, where he reinvented himself as a singer-songwriter. His solo debut, Fijate Bien (Listen Closely), appeared in 2000, and each subsequent release was similarly fuelled by an ardent musical imagination, a gift for poetic, barbed but nonetheless conciliatory lyrics, and a tenor voice that sometimes recalls the heyday of Nuevo Cancion or a Latin John Lennon. On Vida...Es un Ratico (Life...Is a Moment), his fourth studio album, Juanes is once again revealed as a rare combination of guts and glamour, ardor and activism, beauty and brains. From the anthem-like title tune, to the tender, lushly orchestrated balladry of "Dificil," the accordion-fronted vallenato friskiness of "Tres," and the Santana-like conflagration of "Bailala," the momentum never flags. Fans of trad-based pop should snap one this up, especially as the limited edition package includes a DVD containing interviews and performance footage that can be viewed in either Spanish or English. -
La Vida.. Es Un Ratico (Life is Short) October 17, 2007
Music Fan (US)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
La Vida...Es un Ratico (Life is a moment) is the follow up to Juanes' globally multi-platinum release Mi Sangre. In La Vida...Es un Ratico, Juanes once again teams up with co-producer Gustavo Santaolalla, Double-Oscar/Grammy winner. In his first single "Me Enamora," Juanes shows us his intimate personal thoughts on love and relationships. In songs like "Minas Piedras" and Bandera de Manos" he tackles themes of both the hope for peace and social change. With this release, Juanes works to continue to perfect his distinctive fusion of rock with traditional Colombian rhythms and other international styles.
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br /Despues del exito de "Mi Sangre", Juanes nos presenta "Me Enamora" el primer sencillo de su tan esperado nuevo lanzamiento "La Vida...Es un Ratico. "La Vida...Es un Ratico" fue producido nuevamente por Juanes y Gustavo Santaolalla, ganador de dos premios Oscar y multiples Grammy's. Juanes escribió letra y musica de todos los temas durante los dos ultimos años, entre la etapa final de la gira de "Mi Sangre" y un periodo sabatico en el que se concentro en la composición de "La Vida...Es un Ratico". En "La Vida...Es un Ratico" hay canciones que hablan de temas sociales como "Minas Piedras" y "Bandera de Manos" y otras como el primer sencillo "Me Enamora" relacionadas a temas personales y del amor. En este lanzamiento Juanes consolida sin duda alguna su idea musical de fusionar rock con ritmos Colombianos, y ritmos internacionales.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 10
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