Another few weeks, another Enrique Iglesias #1. This is the third single off his debut album, and in a lot of ways it sounds like it. It's more middling and less dynamic than either the assured "Si Tú Te Vas" or the expansive, oddball "Experiencia Religiosa". It's very much a rock ballad — the bluesy guitar licks sound right out of mid-period Clapton or even the late-70s Rolling Stones — but Iglesias doesn't quite know what to do with it, failing to create a coherent performance out of the disparate elements and falling back on his particular brand of underfed overemoting.
The title means "To Love You," and it's another song of devoted love, but this time the images are all extremely hackneyed (chorus: "To love you I would steal the stars from the sky as a gift to you/To love you I would cross the oceans just to hold you close/To love you I would bring together rain and fire/To love you I would give my life just to kiss you"), and while there's always a built-in audience for such songs — inexperienced teenagers will always need something to listen to while crushing on the unattainable — this particular brand of devotion is pretty laughable to anyone with adult concerns.
The only bright spot is in the production dynamics; even after all these years, it's still a pleasure to fall for the trick where all the instruments cut out briefly, then rush back in on a soaring chord. Iglesias even manages a wordless improvisation that's not too embarrassing; right now it seems like he's hitting number one out of sheer nepotistic inertia, but it's tiny hints like this that encourage me to think of what he'll be capable of in the years to come.
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