5/5 Great deal.
  by Javier Lopez (Peru)
I think that it was a good idea to release an enhanced version of ANANDA. The orginal cd is very good but it doesn't include all the extras of this version. On this deluxe version you can find:
1-Music videos ("NI UNA SOLA PALABRA" and "NADA PUEDE CAMBIARME")
2-An interview with Paulina (it's not long, it takes around 10 minutes but it's fun).
3-Behind the scenes footage. This is divided in two parts. The first part is about behind the scenes of both the music videos on the DVD that aren't special because are really short and Paulina barely comments about them and the director doesn't make any comment either. And the sencond part which is about a rehearsal prior a show in Malaga, Spain.
I say that this is a great deal because for an extra bucks you will get the DVD with this features plus on the cd you'll get a bonus track that doesn't appear on the original version of "ANANDA" which is "ME SIENTO MUCHO MAS FUERTE SIN TU AMOR" and two new versions of "NI UNA SOLA PALABRA" and a new extra version of "NADA PUEDE CAMBIARME".
If you like Paulina and you have this album on the simple version, you'll like it because of the 2 videos which are the strings to pull this deluxe version. And if you are willing to buy "ANANDA" because you wanted to have it, well I can say that this is a very good album that follows Paulina's style of mixing several types of music including Pop, Rock, Ranchera, Flamenco influences between others. The first single "NI UNA SOLA PALABRA" became an instant huge hit all over Latin America, Spain and even countries such as Italy where it made a big impression. Between the producers you can find Cachorro Lopez one of the most important producers in the latin market and C. "Tricky" Stewart who produces of singers such as Madonna or Britney Spears. Juanes and Julieta Venagas wrote songs for Paulina, on the lead guitar of "NADA PUEDE CAMBIARME" Paulina had Guns n' Roses's lead guitarist Slash.
This album also sold up to 500,000 copies on its release week and topped almost every latin album chart. Well these are only commercial facts. The album perse is very good. Check "NADA PUEDE CAMBIARME", "N.O", "AYUDAME", "RETRATO" and "MIENTEME UNA VEZ MAS".

5/5 PAULINA DURANGUENSE
  by Genaro Vazquez (SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, USA)
BUEN CD MAS EL DVD (NADA PUEDE CAMBIARME Y NI UNA SOLA PALABRA). NUEVAS VERSIONES EN "PASITO DURANGUENSE" (QUIZA PARA ADELANTARSE A LOS CANTANTES DE ESTE TIPO DE MUSICA QUE HACEN COVERS DE CANCIONES QUE YA HAN SIDO EXITO EN VERSIONES POP). INCLUYE UNA BUENA VERSION DE "ME SIENTO MUCHO MAS FUERTE SIN TU AMOR" DE CHARLY GARCIA. EN FIN, SI EL CD EN SU PRIMERA EDICION ERA BUENO, AHORA ESTA MUCHO MEJOR, Y SI LES GUSTA PAULINA RUBIO, PUES ADQUIERANLO.

5/5 Ananda- An Introduction
  by A. Bonomo (New York)
This was my first Paulina Rubio album. I am not sure I had heard her music before getting this, but by now early songs like "Don't Say Goodbye"/"Si tu te vas", "The One you Love"/"Todo mi amor" and "Yo Sigo aqui"/I'll be right here (Sexual Lover)" are so familiar that I am not sure if I did not really first hear Paulina when she attempted the English language crossover in 2002 with Boarder Girl. As much as I like those songs I am glad that Ananda is my introduction to Paulina.

This is a surprising album. The album is in part a cross over to the "Rockera" side from the "Popera" side. Happily she seems equally comfortable doing both. And these are a diverse and great group of songs. The opening track (and first single) "Ni una sola palabra" is a slow burner. It is about nostalgia for a time in a relationship that she knows will never happen again o matter what is said and straddles the line between ballad and full rock out. When she performs it live it is definitely more of the rock out but the dark underpinnings are always visible.

Next comes "Nada puede cambiar me"- a full rocking tribute to being wild and constantly in love. There is a cameo by Slash, which is given a great view in the music video (available with the special edition). It is very fun and always exciting. "Ayudame" is the next track and it is more of a direct ballad that the previous ones, though Paulina is still singing to a lover who is not there often enough but makes everything better when he is. Or it is, the video (not included) is about global warming. It is strongly contrasted by the following track "N.O." where she fights with someone who is leaving her. The songs demonstrate the emotion Paulina can pack into her voice.

The next song on the album is "Que me voy a quedar" which was written by Coti and Julietta Venegas. Paulina joined them to sing "Nada este fue un error" on Coti's Esta manana y otros cuento. It is one of the more experimental song mixing chanting with side whimsical asides. The result is surpisingly mature and youthful. "Aunque no seas con migo" is going to be a standard. It has been performed by others before Paulina, and will probably be sung by others later, but right here Paulina owns it in that seductive way of hers. During the release of the album Paulina expressed that "No te cambio" written by Juanes, was her favorite song on the album. It is very romantic, and excited. It is a shame they did not release this as a single.

After the heavy romanticism of the first half of the album the next three songs are surprisingly jaded. "Retrato" is one of the albums catchiest declaring that she no longer wants to see someone. But there is still that portrait... "Miente me una vez mas" (Sung in English at the Nobel Prize ceremony as "Beautiful Lies") is a dark, rocker, bleaker than anything before it on the album (maybe the bleakest Paulina ever gets). It is like being betrayed again by the person she was singing about in "Retrato" where she can only blame herself. Completing this quasi trilogy is "Hoy" where she has some seething nasty things to say about not wanting to see this person. She just wants him to suffer, like she did, but does not have the time or "ganas" to do so. On the DVD interview she debates with herself whether this is an immature or mature way of dealing with things. You can also see her rehearse the choreography that would go with her performing this on tour.

The next two songs are an upbeat swing on everything that came before. They do the same chanting style as "Que me voy a quedar" but differently. This is more about interacting with people, group thought and creating that positive energy. Interestingly whether you like these songs or not their tone sets the album, making even the darker parts before seem lighter. The regular version the album ends with "Sin final." It is about making a last night with someone last forever, and comes off as the matured hybrid of those Border Girl songs "Don't Say Goodbye"/"Si tu te vas" and "The One you Love"/"Todo mi amor." However the romance feels more real here and you mourn that this night will end with her.

The special edition includes a very fun version of The Byrds by way of Charlie Garcia song "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better"/"Siento mucho major sin tu amor." Paulina rocks it. There are some remixes that suggest the types of experimenting in musical genres in the future. The DVD includes the videos for "Ni una sola palabra" and "Nada puede cambiar me." They play on her glam image and are fun if not the most creative videos out there. There is also a video interview where Paulina gives a description of the producers and collaborators on most of the album and shows us her house where it was recorded. There are subtitle in English for the interview, though none for the music videos. I would have loved to see someone try to an un-awkward sounding translation of phrases like "volverme guapa y tu guapo con migo." There is also video of a photoshoot. A must for fanatics of Paulina. A good introduction to her career, and hopefully a sign of what is to come from her.

4/5 A number of really hot songs...
  by Iconoclast (Burbank, California)
I've followed Paulina Rubio's career for close to 20 years. I spotted her in Timbiriche in the late '80s or so and saw immediately that she had (and has) enormous pop appeal. I still think, despite the fact that none of her later albums have really disappoined, that her first few albums were her best - particularly her 1992 release, "La Chica Dorada"*. Muy caliente! Really good band and arrangements behind her too. Lots of energy to the songs, lotsa dance numbers, cutely written and delivered.
A+++++

At first I was going to give this album 3.5 stars (de-rated because the videos were ... well, rather lame) but after listening to it several times I've decided that the music CD alone is worth all 5 stars. I may just have to go buy a concert ticket. It's that good. I hear the tunes in my head for days - and it's quite pleasant. :^)

But don't bother slotting the DVD. It's awful. Whoever directs the videos is going for the wrong approach. They should show Paulina, live in concert, doing her thing to her best tunes and it'd be a **HIT**! Trying to be artsy-fartsy/sexy isn't working. Just show what she does best on a live stage because she has the presence to carry that off.
A+++++

*Funny. I don't see it ("La Chica Dorada") for sale here.

5/5 A GREAT ALBUM--EVEN BETTER NOW with video extras and BONUS tracks!
  by P. Eisenman (Upper Michigan)
Ananda has been made even better with the addition of a DVD and several bonus tracks!

The DVD contains TWO videos, an interesting interview (with available ENGLISH subtitles for those of us who's ears can't quite keep up with the spoken Spanish), and several "behind the scenes" 3-4 minute vignettes. Most interesting of these is the "En Malaga, Espana" pre-concert look. That one actually runs slightly longer, approaching ten minutes.

ME SIENTO MUCHO MAS FUERTE SIN TU AMOR is well done and interesting. The NI UNA SOLA PALABRA "Belanova" remix is enjoyable, but the other two bonus tracks, while they may appeal to "tradional" Mexican music fans, didn't really add much to the tracks (in my humble opinion!).

As for the album as a whole, see my review of Ananda Limited Edition (w/poster!). No longer available, so I guess it really was "limited"! Anyways, having lived with that CD for the last 8 months I'd only have to say it GROWS on you and I'd that I like it MORE now than I did at first. I've yet to tire of listening to it. In my prior review I said I thought it wasn't quite as good as Pau-Latina, but now I'd say it IS as good or maybe even better! I'd also say that MIENTEME UNA VEZ MAS is, next to NI UNA SOLA PALABRA, the BEST track on the album and SHOULD be a single. Personally, I think it would have been a much better follow-up single than NADA PUEDE CAMBIARME as it is a much stronger effort and overall composition. Kind of reminds me of "Everytime I Think of You" by the BABYS (Anthology)--not lyrically, but music style wise. Slow, quiet start, but loud and fast later! A high quality track.

All in all, the CD/DVD combo is worth the slight price premium above the standard ANANDA CD. Tri-fold cardstock/plastic double disc case with sleeve for lyric booklet, which is now updated to include lyrics for ME SIENTO MUCHO MAS FUERTE SIN TU AMOR. Two full panel photos of Pau that don't appear in the standard single disc case. For an interesting comparison of Paulina Rubio videos through the years, check out La Historia.