''Shake Away'' () is the sixth studio album by Mexican singer-songwriter

Lila Downs Ana Lila Downs Sánchez (born 9 September 1968 * *) is a Mexican singer-songwriter. She performs her own compositions and the works of others in multiple genres, as well as tapping into Mexican traditional and popular music. She also incorporat ...

. It was released on 2 September 2008 on

Manhattan Records Manhattan Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group and operates as a branch of Interscope Capitol Labels Group. Company history Manhattan Records was formed in 1984 by Bruce Lundvall and was later renamed EMI Manhatt ...

. After attaining international success in 2001 with her first English record, ''

Border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

'', Downs wanted to release a fifth Spanish-English language project as its followup. In the vein of her earlier work, the album is heavily influenced by

world music "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...

flamenco Flamenco () is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the Gitanos, gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and Region of Murcia, ...

and rock. Downs enlisted

Paul Cohen Paul Joseph Cohen (April 2, 1934 – March 23, 2007) was an American mathematician, best known for his proofs that the continuum hypothesis and the axiom of choice are independent from Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory, for which he was awarded a F ...

as executive producer, also working with Celso Duarte, Brian Lynch and Aneiro Taño. At its release ''Shake Away'' received generally favorable reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

, who complimented Lila's evolution from her earlier work. The album debuted at number 36 on the US ''Billboard'' Top Latin Albums, with first-week sales of 30,000 copies. Internationally, the album topped the charts in Argentina, Germany, Mexico and Spain. ''Shake Away'' was nominated at

Best Contemporary World Music Album The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album was an honor presented to recording artists between 2004 and 2011 for quality contemporary world music albums. The Grammy Awards, an annual ceremony that was established in 1958 and originall ...

at the

2009 Grammy Awards The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on February 8, 2009, honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2007, through September 30, 2008. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the ...

, and the Top World Music Majors at the WOMEX Awards. Five singles were released to promote the album. Although its

lead single A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. A similar term, "debut ...

(" Ojo de Culebra") was the only track to reach the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, the follow-up singles "

Perro Negro "Perro Negro" (English: Black Dog) is a song by Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny and Colombian singer Feid. It was released as a single on November 17, 2023, through Rimas Entertainment. Background and release First it was rumored that a collaborat ...

", " Yo Envidio el Viento", "Tierra de Luz" and "

Black Magic Woman "Black Magic Woman" is a song written by British musician Peter Green, which first appeared as a single for his band Fleetwood Mac in 1968. Subsequently, the song appeared on the 1969 Fleetwood Mac compilation albums '' English Rose'' (US) and '' ...

" enjoyed moderate success on the

Hot Latin Songs The ''Billboard'' Hot Latin Songs (formerly Hot Latin Tracks and Hot Latin 50) is a record chart in the United States for Latin music, Latin songs, published weekly by Billboard (magazine), ''Billboard'' magazine. Since October 2012, chart ranki ...

World Music Songs The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plu ...

and

Latin Pop Airplay Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area around Rome, Italy. Through the expansion of ...

charts. The projects were promoted with the Ojo de Culebra Tour in 2009 and 2010, which visited the Americas, Asia and Europe.

Background and composition

After achieving international success in 2001 with her first English album, ''

'', Downs released a Spanish-language record as its follow-up (her first since 1999's '' La Sandunga''). Having co-written nearly sixty songs for the project, she decided to divide the release into two editions and put herself "on the mission of selecting erfavorite ones" to record. ''Shake Away'' contains all Spanish-English language songs and '' Ojo de Culebra'' features all Spanish-language tracks. Downs initially said that the second version would have a "completely new repertory of songs", although the completed album included two Spanish translations of songs from the first record. When recording the albums, she worked with previous collaborators Celso Duarte and Aneiro Taño and new partner Brian Lynch. The artwork for both ''Shake Away'' album was inspired in the mythological account. ''Shake Away'' is heavily influenced by Latin Folk. The introductory track, "Little Man", incorporates

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

styles in its opening banda styles. "Ojo de Culebra" ("Shake Away") features Spanish singer-songwriter

La Mari LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the United States of America. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music *La (musical note), or A, the sixth note *"L.A.", a song by Elliott Smit ...

, and includes elements of Mexican

cumbia Cumbia refers to a number of musical rhythms and folk dance traditions of Latin America, generally involving musical and cultural elements from American Indigenous peoples, Europeans, and Africans during colonial times. Cumbia is said to have com ...

music,

and

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

. "Minimum Wage" is a Jazz influenced song with rock elements against an alternative background. "Perro Negro" ("Dog Black"), featuring Mexican singer-songwriter Ixaya Mazatzin Tleytól, is a fusion of

klezmer Klezmer ( or ) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for listening; these wou ...

and rock. The five track, "Yo Envidio el Viento" is a translation into Spanish of "I Envy the Wind" by the American singer-songwriter

Lucinda Williams Lucinda Gayl Williams (born January 26, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter and a solo guitarist. She recorded her first two albums, ''Ramblin' on My Mind (Lucinda Williams album), Ramblin' on My Mind'' (1979) and ''Happy Woman Blues'' (198 ...

and has a

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

feel. "

Skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of most animals. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is a rigid outer shell that holds up an organism's shape; the endoskeleton, a rigid internal fra ...

" also has influences from rock and traditional music, using simple melodies to emphasize Lila's vocals. "

", featuring singer-songwriter

Raul Midón Raul Midón (born March 14, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist from New Mexico. Biography Early life Midón was born prematurely in a rural hospital in Embudo, New Mexico, Embudo, New Mexico, to parents of Argentines, Arg ...

, is a cover by Peter Green that has rock-folk elements. The disc concludes with an English version of "Yo Envidio el Viento" and "Justicia".

Track listing

References

External links

Shake Away Review
on

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

.
Shake Away Review
in

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

. {{Authority control Lila Downs albums 2008 albums