Customer Rating: 
Summary: Where it all began...
Comment: Shakira's debut album is still one of the best albums of modern spanish latin rock/pop. Her english work will never be able to compare. If you want to experience true Shakira buy this album or 'Donde Estan Los Ladrones?'.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece that Even Shakira Cannot Surpass
Comment: This 1996 album best exemplifies why so many of us fell in love with Shakira Mebarak. This Catholic Lebanese-Colombian singer is best known for her belly-dancing routines and "Hips Don't Lie", but read this review to get to know the early Shakira better.
Reviewers mistakenly state that this is Shakira's debut album. Not so. This is her THIRD studio album, but the first on a major label. Her first two albums - "Magia" (from when she was 13), and "Peligro" (at age 15) were commercial disappointments, and consisted of worn, badly produced Spanish love songs.
But "Pies Descalzos" (translation - "Naked Feet") is where it all came together. This is my second favorite Spanish language album, right after Gloria Estefan's legendary "Mi Tierra".
Now more than a decade old, its timelessness and lyrical brilliance continue to dazzle and win new fans each passing year (its one of the highest selling Latin albums of all time, and still sells hundreds of thousands of copies every year). The secret behind it is simple - this is perhaps the only album to capture Shakira in all her honesty, without pretense or marketing drive to fuel her 'image'.
The result is a stripped-down, acoustic album with complete dedication to simplistic folk-tunes and some acoustic rock elements. The lyrics, even if you are not a native speaker, are the highlight. But up front is Shakira's beautiful voice. In my opinion, her voice peaked on this album and has never sounded as good.
"Estoy Aqui", the lead single, might be why people remember this, but the best songs are all toward the end of the album. Her finest moment here is "Vuelve", a shape-shifting, strange song that will get lodged in your subconscious without any effort on your part. This is stellar. As interesting is "Donde Esta Corazon", a plaintive love ballad where you can just imagine the artist sitting on her sofa with a lonely guitar. Beautiful.
The reason I say that this entire album is Shakira's best effort EVER, is because the CD she released right after this was more rock-oriented and commercial (in the best and worst ways). Later, of course, she bleached her hair blonde, went lighter, and started singing English songs. I do enjoy some of her English work, but they are not a patch on any of the songs here.
For longtime fans of Shakira, we still hold this album dear, because it defines the very best of her work, and reminds us of who she was before she started mass-marketing herself to be successful with North American audiences. Get a copy of this immediately to discover who she was when she started out - this is a classic, essential Spanish language album, and your collection is certainly incomplete without it.
Five Stars.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Simply Perfect
Comment: This is the best CD along with Donde Estan Los Ladrones that Shakira has ever produced. Every song is wonderful; there are no filler tracks just plain execptional music. Viva Shakira and Colombia!!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: brilliant early work...
Comment: ...of the now international superstar....you don't need to know spanish to feel the sentiments of the songs, fall in love with the work nor admire the talents of this artist.
Customer Rating:
Summary: NACE UNA ESTRELLA...
Comment: este es el disco que marca el inicio de la ERA SHAKIRA en toda america; este album supuso su internacionalizacion (sus dos primeros albumes no lograron popularizarse en el exterior aun) y su rapido ascenso a la cima de su fama; con este album, esta mujercita demostro ser GRANDE ENTRE LOS GRANDES; con sus primaros hitazos como ESTOY AQUI, PIES DESCALZOS, DONDE ESTAS CORAZON, temas romanticos como ANTOLOGIA, TE NECESITO, PIENSO EN TI, y temas de indole social como SE QUIERE SE MATA, incluso un poco de hip hop en UN POCO DE AMOR, QUIERO y blues en TE ESPERO SENTADA; este gran trabajo discografico fue EL PEQUENO GRAN PASO DE UNA PEQUENA GRAN ARTISTA...
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