Nosologamer #11 Julio 2013

The waning of the era of lute player in the early 18th century coincided with the rise of the smallest member of the lute family, the soprano lute, also known as the mandolin, mandola or leutino in Southern Italy, especially in Naples, the city of music. In the following decades, the city of Naples, with it's famous conservatories, saw the birth of a number of compositions for mandolin. Many distinguished composers set out to discover the new possibilities this instrument offered.

Having recently declared that he's in far better voice than he was in his '70s/'80s heyday, romantic crooner Julio Iglesias gets to put his money where his mouth is on this alternative greatest-hits collection, Vol. 1. His first studio release since 2007's Quelque Chose de France sees Spain's most successful musical export revisit 15 of his most cherished songs from his enduring 40-year career, with tracks spanning from 1973's Un Canto a Galicia (the title track) right up to 2006's Romantic Classics (a Spanish-language version of Elvis' "Always on My Mind"). But other than the inevitable maturity in Iglesias' voice and a slightly glossier production, there's little variation between the originals and the new recordings, which, with the exception of the breezy Gallic lounge-pop of "As Vezes Tu, As Vezes Eu," stick to his trademark orchestral and flamenco-tinged chansons.