Latino Music Album: Elsten Torres’ “Waiting for the Clouds” Review

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Latino music has so many talented artists, that some of them like Elsten Torres tend to go under the general public radar.

Hey, I confess to being one of those that didn’t know about Elsten. In this Latino music album review of “Waiting for the Clouds”, I tell you why I’m glad I got to know more about him.

Elsten Torres is a 2-time Grammy nominated Cuban folk-pop-rock singer and guitarist who also happens to be a well renowned Latino music songwriter. Elsten’s songs have been performed by the likes of Ricky Martin, Luis Fonsi, Oscar D’Leon, Obie Bermudez, and Alejandra Guzman, among others.

Elsten Torres on cover of Latin pop / Latin folk "Waiting for the Clouds".
Elsten Torres’ “Waiting for the Clouds” has well written soft melodies with beautiful music.

“Waiting for the Clouds” is Elsten Torres’ 6th recording, and here I’m counting the recordings he did with his previoius bands Rebelde Sin Causa, Fulano de Tal, and as Fulano. As a great Latino music songwriter, Elsten does a great job describing the essence of “Waiting for the Clouds” in his website:

“This new record is comprised of a group of songs that reflect the highs and lows of a very turbulent and trans formative time in my personal life. Armed with a spectrum of emotions this collection is an intimate insight into my life, that of a hard working class artist.”

The album was produced by Brendan Buckley, ex-band mate of Elsten Torres in Fulano, and launched under Elsten’s indy label after a successful Pledge Music crowdsourcing campaign to complete the funding for the album. While we are in the topic is worth mentioning that Elsten Torres previous album, “Individual” (2007) received a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Pop Album, the only independent album that year to receive recognition in the Grammys.

What I Liked About “Waiting for the Clouds”

  • Great soft music – although Elsten uses various music genres and tempos in “Waiting for the Clouds”, most songs are acoustic guitar-led mellow songs. The fact that Elsten varies the focus of the songs from pop to rock to a bit of folk, keeps the album fresh and interesting.
  • Deep lyrics – no wonder all those artists I mentioned above have performed Elsten’s songs! Elsten writes great songs; songs that can have deep emotional content, eloquently expressed messages, or a poetic love theme.
  • Good singing – Elsten delivers on beautiful singing throughout the album. I liked the 2 duets he does with crossover Alt. Latino darling Gaby Moreno. Also, as he has mentioned himself, you can hear the influence of the Beatles on this music. Particularly of John Lennon’s style.
  • Good Musicianship – “Waiting for the Clouds” had excellent quality of musical execution as well as sound quality. You can notice the attention to details in the music. Elsten’s guitar is impeccable, as is the musical execution by all musicians.
  • My Favorite Songs – are “Closer Tonight” one of the songs that features a duet with Gaby Moreno (see video below), the Beattle-esque “Bleeding Heart Club” (even the title reminds me of that St. Pepper’s Beattle album), and the upbeat “Sitting on your Throne”, which Elsten sings in his Pledge Music campaign video; a very interesting video with Elsten talking with a double image of himself as well as to the viewer.

Below is the video of Elsten Torres’ “Closer Tonight”

Suggestions for Elsten Torres on “Waiting for the Clouds”

Well, as you know by now, I always try to find something that I either didn’t like or think could be done better as part of keeping me honest.

  • “Waiting for the Clouds” (song) – ironically, i was a bit disappointed with the title song “Waiting for the Clouds”. Is that why Elsten placed it last in the album? I think it’s perhaps a matter of my expectations. I was so impressed with the previous 9 songs, that I was expecting even more from the title song. The more songs went by, the higher the expectations for the title song grew. I’m not saying this is a bad song, cause that’s not what I’m saying. But it’s the song I was less impressed with in the album.

I can’t point out anything else in “Waiting for the Clouds” that I didn’t like or think it could’ve been done differently.

My Recommendation for “Waiting for the Clouds”

Elsten Torres playing Latin music with his band.
Elsten Torres is a 2-time Grammy nominated Latino artist.

Since I didn’t know Elsten Torres’ work, I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised by this album. Elsten’s style has resemblances of Lennon’s, but his songs are definitely his own. Great songwriting talent and well as overall performer, I’m inspired to hoot the horn for this album because we need to bring out great Latino music talent like Elsten Torres for all to enjoy.

I definitely recommend this album if you like soft pop-folk-rock type of music, in some instances similar to John Lennon and in others to John Mellencamp’s type of songs. I just mention these as references so you get an idea, but the best thing is to give it a try. Find him in YouTube or in Elsten Torres’ web site HERE, where he has videos of his songs.

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