Rocktrospectiva: Successful "Cuts Both Ways" Turns 35

 

Released on 28 July 1989, "Cuts Both Ways" was the debut solo album by Cuban-American artist Gloria Estefan, althought artist had the instrumental support by Miami Sound Machine, the álbum was a worldwide succesful and released five singles "Don't Wanna Lose You", "Get On Your Feet", "Here We Are", "Oye Mi Canto (Hear My Voice)" & "Cuts Both Ways. 

 

According to history, back in 1987, Gloria Estefan was the lead singer of Miami Sound Machine, but then she was credited above the band name Gloria Estefan And Miami Sound Machine on their album "Let It Loose" so by 1989, Stefan was one of the most successful female Latin artists in the world. With the release of Cuts Both Ways, Estefan was marketed as a solo artist. The album reached the top ten on the US Billboard 200 chart and peaked at number 1 in the UK and Australia. 

 

The first single from the album was "Don't Wanna Lose You", which became one of Estefan's biggest hits, reaching number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (her second US number one). It also reached the top ten in the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK. Later releases from Cuts Both Ways were the commercially successful singles "Here We Are", "Oye mi Canto", and "Get on Your Feet". The title track was released as the final single from the album and was a number one hit on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. 

 

Gloria Estefan furthered her indulgence in spare, moody love ballads and club-ready dance-pop jams for "Cuts Both Ways" and scored herself another Top Ten album. The transformation of Gloria Estefan the lead singer of Miami Sound Machine to Gloria Estefan the pop star is finally complete here. The album is billed simply to the star herself, and it plays that way, too, with a heavy reliance on ballads, supported by Miami Sound Machine's latin pop dance style, and you can hear this on tracks such as "Ay, Ay, I," "Say," "Oy Mi Canto," and "Get on Your Feet", now these sound like a club hits hit late 80s., synth-drum patterns, but "Get On Your Feet" stands on its own reaching same level as "1-2-3" for instance. 

 

What about the ballads, you can experience a very up-and-down listening experience as the tempos alternate drastically from one song to the next, there are some super songs here, namely "Here We Are," "Say," "Oy Mi Canto," "Don't Wanna Lose You," as the typical power ballads. 

 

Probably this was one of the most brilliant album by Estefan, long before the audience displacement that Estefan would experience in subsequent years as she drifted even further away from the unabashed Miami Sound Machine-style dance-pop of yesteryear. Cuts Both Ways is one of her best and, without question, was one of her most successful, clear affirmation that Estefan had indeed become one of the biggest pop stars in the whole wide world at the end of the 1980s.

 

Cuts Both Ways Track List:

 

1. Ay, Ay, I

2. Here We Are

3. Stay

4. Think About You Know

5. Nothin' New

6. Oye Mi Canto (Hear My Voice)

7. Don't Wanna Lose You

8. Get On your Feet

9. Your Love Is Bad For Me

10. Cuts Both Ways