Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Pretty good!
While some national magazines have lobbed pretty harsh criticism at this CD, it's not as bad as those publications would have you think. Though it's not a major musical milestone, I don't really think Enrique Iglesias was shooting for an album that would change people's lives. What he does deliver, though, is a nice collection of uptempo songs with an occassional ballad thrown in for good measure. The CD kicks off with three very enjoyable tracks. "Escape," "Don't Turn Off The Lights," and "Love To See You Cry" are almost club-ready tracks, just a remix away from packing dancefloors. True, much of it is derivative, but at least he's drawing from quality stuff--"Love To See You Cry" sounds very close to Modjo's "Lady (Hear Me Tonight)." From the opening trio of tracks, the album shifts gears for the current radio staple, "Hero." Enrique Iglesias is not the greatest of ballad singers, but his delivery here is solid, and he does have a fairly strong voice to work with anyway. He often seems to substitute breathy vocals for soul, but with something as confectioner-sweet as this, it's excusable. The only other track that slows down is "Maybe," is midtempo track that kind of blends into the rest of the album. If there's one thing this CD is guilty of, it's of trying to put its arms around too many different uptempo sounds. "I Will Survive" does borrow somewhat from the Gloria Gaynor disco classic, but it also seems to be lyrically paced in a manner close to Paula Abdul's "Straight Up." "Love 4 Fun" sounds like an updated Ace of Base track. And "She Be The One" is a pretty weak lyrical stab at being hip (nice beat, though). The other two tracks, "One Night Stand" and "If The World Crashes Down" would fit perfectly on Cher's "Believe" album. The final three songs are Spanish-language versions of three of the tracks on the album. Is this album perfect? No, not at all (the Mariah Carey-esque shreiking at the end of "Don't Turn Off The Lights" is pretty startling and doesn't really help the song out). But the production is pretty good (Iglesias co-produced a lot of it, as well as co-writing all of the songs), and even if it does draw from some less-than-stellar talents, he has been able to craft songs that are pleasing to hear, if not life-altering. It's also interesting to note that he seems to rely less on the Latin rhythms that punctuated his last English-language album, and that serves him fairly well. This time next year, you probably won't be listening to this one incessantly, but then again, CDs that spin in your CD player for more than twelve months are fairly few and far between. If you're a fan of breezy pop songs, then this one's for you. Chances are you'll be hearing a lot of these songs on the radio over the next few months anyway, so consider this a sneak peek into what 2002 holds for us.
Rating:  - Some good tracks, but not super.
Let's examine 'Escape', track by track.1. Escape (8/10) Great way to start off the album. Nice, fresh, dance track. I love the beat, and that "yoku ooooOoooo" towards the end is brilliant and catchy. 2. Don't Turn Off the Lights (4/10) I was really disappointed with this track. It's just not Enrique caliber. Sounds like a combination of Nelly (the rapper) & Nelly (Furtado). 3. Love To See You Cry (6/10) I like the guitar acoustics. This song sounds a bit like Modjo's "Lady", which is ok. I like this song, smooth, relaxing, love, dance, song. Catchy lyrics. 4. Hero (7/10) I didn't REALLY love this song, although it was such a huge success. Yes, it is catchy, and a beautiful song, but Enrique isn't the best ballad singer. 5. I Will Survive (8/10) Brilliant melody. Violin and piano mixes well. But it seems like it's missing something. Not sure what, though. Maybe a heavy beat like 'Escape'? 6. Love 4 Fun (7/10) The opening sound gives you an 80's feel. Then a 'never heard before' beat comes in. I like this song. Guilty feeling. The trumpets work well here, too, along with the guitar. 7. Maybe (8/10) Beautiful piano opening. Very catchy song. I like it. 8. One Night Stand (6/10) Your regular club hit. This song is ok. I don't LOVE it, but it's fairly catchy. Has the Cher 'Believe' sound. 9. She Be The One (9/10) This track is amazing. I love it. Of course, the title is grammatically incorrect, but whatever. It's extremely catchy, and I love it. The beat, guitar, it's all good. 10. If the World Crashes (8/10) VERY catchy chorus. I like this song as well. "if the world crashes down.... over me...!!" Nice melody. 11. Escape (Spanish) Nice to have this in Spanish.
12. Don't Turn Off the Lights (Spanish) He must of run out of other material to have had to put this on.
13. Hero (Spanish) Also beautiful in Espanol. I'm sure Enrique did not produce this album to change the face of music. He just created something for us to have fun with, and I think he accomplished that. Overall rating of "Escape" 7/10
Rating: - Don't Escape from this
Say what you like about him, but sure he's a good singer and most of the song's on this cd(except 2-3) are more or less Neu-Disco tunes, just like Kylie did. So there's a lot of nice songs on this album. "Escape" which is also the album title is a up tempo song with cool sound and hook. "Love to see you cry" another dance song which also was released on single. "Love for fun" probably the best dance song here. "Don't turn off the lights" "One night stand" are simular but all worth the time. Ironically there's another disco/dance song called "I will survive" nah it's not the one Gloria Gaynor made in the late 70's but it's decent anyway. There are ballads as always "Maybe" and "Hero" ofcourse, the mega hit he had with Jennifer Love Hewitt in the video. Yeah it was a exellent ballad, which sold very well. On "Escape" there are 13 songs but 3 are spansih versions of english songs. I think Enrique once again made a good pop-dance album, some songs got overplayed on tv for sure but the album is defenitely something you should get if you like cool neu-disco music.
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