Dulce Beat Live

Consider Belanova's Dulce Beat Live CD/DVD a victory lap for the Mexican electronic pop trio, who released this concert recording just in time for the 2006 holiday shopping season following a solid year of tremendous success in their native country. There were few acts more popular in Mexico over the course of the preceding year than Belanova, with the arguable exception of RBD, who likewise enjoyed omnipresent media saturation, even as the kids labored part of the year on Celestial and Rebels. From the sound of Dulce Beat Live, Belanova has a fan base nearly as ardent as that of RBD. Similar to the riotous spectacle of the latter group's regularly released live albums, the fans here seem to know every single word of these songs, singing along en masse and erupting into a frenzy of adoration often, especially whenever vocalist Denisse Guerrero banters on between songs. Guerrero exhibits an impressive command of the audience, functioning not only as Belanova's spotlight draw but also as the ringleader of the circus. Really, that's what this concert release is, a circus show intended to demonstrate just how popular Belanova had become a year or so after the release of Dulce Beat and how zealously their young, largely female fans adore Guerrero's every word, strut, and gaze — seemingly her every breath. As for the actual music, it's not bad. The sound quality of the recording is understandably not up to par with the glimmering vibrancy of Dulce Beat, which had been produced by the Latin Grammy-winning Producer of the Year, Cachorro López. But the performances are quite reminiscent of those featured on the studio album, impressively so, in fact, since the album was considerably nuanced in its application of layers upon layers of soft-hued electronics. The bit hits ("Por Ti," "Me Pregunto") are the highlights, unsurprisingly, and while the guest features (Coti, Joselo, Brian Amadeus) are fairly unimpressive, the covers of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" and the Cure's "Boys Don't Cry" (the latter preceded by a preface by Guerrero about machismo) are choice.