I was put off by the frenchified castellano of the first cut. “Con _toda_ palabra…” I believe it should be “Con _cada_ palabra…”

An interesting voice, certainly. I think her first album showed more intensity.
Rating: 3 / 5

Born in the Catskill mountains, Lhasa’s childhood consisted of traversing the United States and Mexico in a hippied-out school bus with her hippy parents. Lhasa gained recognition while on the Lilith Fair tour with her smooth voice and (slightly) different sound. She has recently been working in Europe, especially France, garnering attention and fans. One would think that with such a bizarre childhood she would have excess mojo and her new English, Spanish, and French language album, The Living Road, would be hip and inspiring. Such is not the case. Lhasa identifies as Mexican-American, and I wonder what her first language is because the songs in each language featured on her new album all sound very unnatural, dull, and emotionless.

The album starts with five identical tracks that rely on her smoky voice to carry the tune. The fact is, she doesn’t have enough skill or strength behind her voice to make these slow songs enjoyable. The rest of the album is interspersed with more of these meandering waltzes and a few tracks that I can only describe as mariachi, south-of-the-boarder tunes, castanets and all. The highlight (and the only bit worth listening to) is two songs featured back-to-back, “Small Song” and “My Name.” “Small Song” has some interesting percussion work in the vein of Rain Dogs era Tom Waits; “My Name” has some nice lyrical images. “Things just get further and further apart/ the head from the hands/ and the hands from the heart.” The album artwork is very cool, but I would discourage buying Lhasa’s extremely mediocre The Living Road.

Rating: 2 / 5

I bought this CD because it bore a label saying it was the best-selling world music album in the U.K. Frankly, I thought if it was that popular it wouldn’t be too esoteric or inaccessible. (That will tell you that I’m not all that adventurous when it comes to music, so my review must be seen in that light. That being said, I should add that I love Cesaria Evora and Pink Martini — so I’m not THAT corny.) With those expectations, I found the album a tad disappointing. Rather than being moody or exotic, the songs seem a bit weird and heavy-sounding to me…hence the three stars.
Rating: 3 / 5

Same voice but not as interesting as her first album.
Rating: 3 / 5

Gostei mais do clima do CD do que das músicas propriamente ditas, qeu são meio monocórdias.
Rating: 4 / 5