Search - Carlos Vives :: Tengo Fe

Keeping the faith in a heart broken country

08/24/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Vives demonstrates once again why he is the present number one Colombian artist. The combination of typical and native instruments with common rock-n-roll ones gives this CD a different flavor. In "Que diera", Vives provides us with a García Marquez type of story of love and disenchantment. "Los Buenos Tiempos" evokes the days small towns waited for the train to pass by bringing news and civilization. "Pambe" honors Miguel Cervantes "Pambele", Colombia's greatest boxer, who now fights against his own misery and alcoholism. "Malas Lenguas" is Vives' classy response to those who have critized his style. "Caballito" and "Interior" are songs written by Vives for his current love, his daughter Lucía. In general, the album is Vives' contribution to Colombia's search for hope , peace and a better future for coming generations."

Strong work by a great artist, but not his best

11/04/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Carlos Vives is an international treasure, and deserves popularity far beyond the Spanish-speaking world. His previous CD, La Tierra del Olvido, is one of the best disks of the 90s in any language. This one is darker and much less exuberant. There are only one or two toe-tapping dance tunes (and those are in minor keys), fewer love songs (and those are all about love lost, not love present). That said, Tengo Fe is strong and admirable. It continues Vives' project of making Columbian roots-pop, although the accents here are decidedly more on the European ballad style and less on polyrhythms and traditional instruments, especially on the first half of the disk. One suspects a bid for the Julio Iglesias market. Lyrically, the disk is more sophisticated and interesting than Vives' previous work. Los Buenos Tiempos, for instance, evokes a familiar image from Vives' countryman Garcia Marquez, the train line that brings economic development and environmental destruction to the interior, but treats the tradeoffs with more respect than Garcia Marquez's romanticized approach. My favorite songs are the lovely title track, a love-lost/peace-found ballad, Sol de Mediodia, something of a protest song about work, Cumbia Americana, a slinky, syncopated dance number, and the nursery-rhyme-based Caballito. If you are at all interested in Vives and don't already own it, buy Tierra del Olvido immediately, then come back for Tengo Fe if you want more."

No parece vives...lamentablemente

pablo rossi | BUENOS AIRES, BUENOS AIRES Argentina | 03/20/2001

(2 out of 5 stars)

"me encanta la musica de vives. De sus trabajos , esta es la excepcion. Aqui no encontramos ni el ritmo,ni el espiritu de la musica que lo caracteriza, y el resultado es un cd totalmente obviable, que no aporta nada a la notables producciones de este interprete.( afortunadamente retoma su mejor estilo en el siguiente ¨el amor de mi tierra¨"