Nora Nora
Electric Lady (Sony Tropical 82087)

The former lead vocalist for Orquesta De La Luz throws a salsa-rific party on her first solo effort. Decked out on the album cover in some futuristic diva drag, she seems intent on projecting a riotously fun new image. The music is, as expected, fun as hell, though leaning toward too slick in parts.

I like to imagine a salsa band laboring for months over some masterpiece of an album, tempers flaring, crafting the salsa Hotel California. Somehow it's not as interesting to think that a great band got together and laid down a great album with no friction.

I wonder what it's like to make an album that sounds like a party, it must be so fun. However, I'll continue to imagine that as soon as the music stopped, the bitter infighting resumed.

Actually, all those white bands could learn a lesson from all this. You can't get all Brian Wilson when you're busy dancing. It makes all those pop "geniuses" look all the more foolish that they think they're onto some new kind of symphony. Then again, if a white guy tried to do salsa he'd be David Byrne, and no one wins with that.

Okay, I guess I've decided I'll keep my wimpy pop and mainstream latin music separate. Electric Lady may not be Pet Sounds but it beats Hotel California by a country mile.

Though there may be a few too many crazy guest rappers trying to woo Nora mid-song, and perhaps the piano might have been a scad less incessant; still, this remains a favorite.

Check out Orquesta De La Luz's Sabor De La Luz before this one, but save room for both.

Loud Bassoon rating scale

Review by Phyllis Cunty