Charo
Charo and Guitar
Universal Wave

So Charo can play guitar. Cuchi cuchi! Actually, she’s not that bad. Nay, she’s excellent. Of course, the cover art doesn’t emphasize it all that well – her pretty mug is the main feature, with the guitar just barely peeking through the lens. But put the disc on, and you’ll hear her picking with style and finesse.

But this music has its marred surfaces, too. For one, the disc is book-ended with two pairs of tracks featuring backing straight out of Santa Esmeralda hell. Granted, Charo may like to party, but it’s mighty hard to listen to and appreciate her talents with bumping disco beats vying for attention. The feet will win out every time in a case like this. There are some other tunes, like “En Aranjuez Con Tu Amor,” for example, where the guitar gets a greater spotlight. But then someone had to fuck up the prettiest moment on the disc. “Malaguena,” the disc’s 8th cut, sounds like a 56kbps mp3, maybe even worse. We buy compact discs precisely because they sound better than mp3s. When you hear a disc where the best song sounds worse than something you could have downloaded for free, you just might feel a teeny bit ripped off.

Charo gets an A for effort, but she’s still the “cuchi cuchi” girl and this disc isn’t doing anything to change that.--Michael Fortes