Kinda Latin – CLIFF RICHARD***

Blame It On The Bossa Nova/Blowin’ In The Wind/Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars/Eso Beso/The Girl From Ipanema/ One Note Samba/Fly Me To The Moon/Our Day Will Come/Quando Quando Quando/Come Closer To Me/Meditation/Concrete & Clay

Kinda Latin was another themed album from Cliff - fortunately this one is sung in English. For this album The Shadows have been replaced by heavy orchestral arrangements. (UK:9)

"The successor to the Spanish and Italian language albums which he had previously unleashed, Cliff Richard's eschewed the linguistic gymnastics which marred those collections, and concentrated on the moods alone - with stunning results."

"Handed a foreign language lyric sheet, he gives it his best, but rarely comes out on top. Left to his own English language devices, however, Richard's natural vocal powers can scarcely be faulted - even the most practiced rehearsal can sound like an ad lib, and it doesn't matter how many times you catch that chuckle at the end of Blame It On The Bossa Nova, it still seems as natural as breathing. It's a terrific album, and no mistake."

"Well, some of these tracks are better than others; The Shadows are missed and Cliff sings in a jazzier, but still sultry, Latin style. Can I just note that Cliff towards the end of the 60s and early 70s went a little off track; he recorded many lightweight and sing-a-long songs which did not do justice to his vocal prowess, nor parade the magical qualities in his voice."

"The Kinda Latin songs are a cut above the songs Cliff would spend the next few years recording; but occasionally he seems almost drowned in the heavy orchestral, jazzy arrangements, as perhaps in Blame It On The Bossa Nova and Eso Beso. Some people might attack the album for its lack of originality; yet Cliff adds his own essential 'Cliff magic' to these fine songs. I don't know a pop vocalist above him."

"There are many superb tracks on this, such as a sensitive, tender Girl From Ipanema and a delightful, mellow cover of Bob Dylan's fantastic anti-war song Blowin' In The Wind. The songs that work best are the softer ones with less accompaniment, which rely instead on the rich expressiveness and mellifluous beauty of Cliff's voice: Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars, Our Day Will Come and Come Closer To Me."