Description
Always & Forever is the sophomore album by the American singer and songwiter Patty Cabrera, released on Curb Records in 1996. (Also released as Siempre Y Para Siempre, featuring lyrics in Spanish.) The album was produced by Bob Parr.
The tragic murder last year of rising Latino pop star Selena, and her subsequent No. 1 debut on Billboard magazine’s Top 200 album chart, paved the way for a tremendous amount of media attention focused in the Hispanic music market in the United States. Now Patty Cabrera, returning from a four-year hiatus, offers what may be the strongest effort yet to meet the growing demand for Christian music aimed at the Hispanic-American community.
‘Always and Forever’ is an intelligent blend of Latin and pop sounds, sung in English but interspersed with plenty of spicy Spanish exclamations. Cabrera has a beautiful and expressive voice, however, it is the funky Latin-flavored percussion playing and the tasty guitar work that make this album a cut above the rest.
Cabrera, who is of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent, co-wrote six of the 10 gems on the project, which alternates sensibly between bouncy pop tunes and heartfelt ballads. The album doesn’t really hit its stride until the third song, «Family», which contains a splendid rap interlude. Other standout cuts that follow include the rollicking «Take a Good Look» and «I Hear Love», which was co-written by pop star Jon Secada. «Take it Away» is a heartfelt ballad with a strong gospel feel, which shows Jesus as the only one who can take away loneliness, pain and despair.
Overall, the project is a real listening pleasure. One can only hope that the sometimes limiting Christian music market will give this comeback project the fair shot that it so richly deserves. [Michael Ciani, CCM, April 1996]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/always-and-forever/269048470)
CD tracklist:
01. Always And Forever – 4:17
02. Home (Wherever Your Heart Is) – 4:21
03. Family – 4:00
04. Take A Good Look – 3:33
05. Who You Lovin’ – 3:44
06. Take It Away – 4:56
07. Free Me – 4:00
08. Love Needs People – 5:08
09. I Hear Your Love – 4:16
10. I Can’t Let Go – 4:54
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Curb Records.
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