Cuts Both Ways

by Gloria Estefan

Overview

Leveraging the runaway success of her previous album, Let It Loose, 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 complete here. While Let It Loose had been the first Miami Sound Machine album to co-bill Estefan (that is, "Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine"), Cuts Both Ways is billed simply to the star herself. And it plays that way, too, with a heavy reliance on Gloria-spotlighting ballads -- roughly half the album, discounting the album-ending Spanish-language versions. Miami Sound Machine's patented Latin dance-lite style is sidelined a bit, for better and for worse. Sure, "Ay, Ay, I," "Say," "Oy Mi Canto," and "Get on Your Feet" are all club-ready with their big late-'80s synth-drum patterns, but only "Get on Your Feet" comes close to matching the majesty of past club hits like "Conga," "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You," and "1-2-3." And more tellingly, there aren't any straight pop songs here like "Bad Boy" or "Betcha Say That." Cuts Both Ways goes only both ways -- either ballad or jam -- which makes for a very up-and-down listening experience as the tempos alternate drastically from one song to the next. All this over-analysis aside, there are some super songs here, namely "Here We Are," "Say," "Oy Mi Canto," "Don't Wanna Lose You," and "Get on Your Feet." That's a lot of super-ness for one album, even if on the whole Cuts Both Ways seems overly calculated and sadly foreshadows 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. Even so, 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 as the '80s came to a close. ~ Jason Birchmeier

Product Details

Release Date:	07/07/2023
Label:	Music On Vinyl
UPC:	8719262014053
Rank:	35942

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Gloria Estefan   Primary Artist,Vocals,Lead Vocals,Vocals (Background)
Clay Ostwald   Primary Artist,Piano,Synthesizer,Vocals (Background)
Jorge Casas   Primary Artist,Bass,Fretless Bass,Bass (Electric),Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric),Vocals (Background)
Betty Wright   Vocals (Background)
Emilio Estefan, Jr.   Congas
John Haag   Vocals (Background)
Jon Secada   Vocals (Background)
Paquito Hechevarria   Piano
Teddy Mulet   Soloist,Trumpet,Trombone,Vocals (Background)
Michael Thompson   Guitar (Electric),Guitar (Electric)
Mike Scaglione   Soloist,Saxophone
John DeFaria   Guitar,Soloist,Lead Guitar,Guitar (Electric)
Rafael Padilla   Percussion
Randy Barlow   Trumpet,Vocals (Background)
Tom McWilliams   Vocals (Background)
Robert Rodriguez   Drums
Paco Fonta   Guitar (Acoustic)

Technical Credits

Eric Schilling   Engineer,Mixing
Bill Duncan   Composer
Clay Ostwald   Arranger,Composer,Producer,Programming,Horn Arrangements
Emilio Estefan, Jr.   Producer
Carlos Nieto   Mixing Assistant
John Haag   Mixing,Arranger
Jon Secada   Composer,Lyricist
Phil Ramone   Mixing
Teddy Mulet   Horn Arrangements
Mauricio Guerrero   Mixing Assistant
Gloria Estefan   Arranger,Composer,Lyricist,Horn Arrangements
Humberto Gatica   Mixing
John DeFaria   Arranger,Composer,Lyricist
Jorge Casas   Arranger,Composer,Lyricist,Producer,Programming,Horn Arrangements
Scott Shapiro   Arranger
Tom McWilliams   Arranger
Greg Laney   Mixing Assistant