★★★★★
Is Raul Malo taking the smooth classicism too far? Is he venturing beyond a quite possibly self-aware kitschiness, deep into the crimson heart of easy listening? The authentic, smoothly tonsured article? Is the selection of A Man Without Love (as popularised by ) just a step too far? Well, all right, Malo did play it back in his days.....
- www.bbc.co.uk
2013-04-23
★★★★★
On the opening title-track from this former 's latest disc, it takes Malo two minutes before he opens his mouth to sing. It's a grand entrance, heralded by a rush of retro-kitsch Mariachi surf music, which just about sums up where the artist is at, nowadays. Lip-splitting trumpet, Farfisa-oid organ trots, and a skipping beat presage the high drama of Malo's entrance. The wind machine gently ruffles his hair and beard in front of a sunset Tijuana backdrop...
- www.bbc.co.uk
2013-04-23
★★★★★
There is nothing actually the matter with the new Raul Malo solo CD. The ex-Maverick is in fine voice. He belts out the 12 cover tunes (11 actually, as he does two versions of Randy Newman's "Feels Like Home"--one a duet with country singer Martina McBride) with strong operatic inflections. The song selection includes an impressive array of material from different genres...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-01-20
★★★★★
Fans of Raul Malo will, no doubt, appreciate this effort, however, those individuals led to believe by the title of the album, The Nashville Acoustic Sessions, that this CD is somehow, scaled back, rootsy, and free of the candy sweet, slick production that plagues most contemporary country will be sorely disappointed. If the creators of the album disagree, it is simply because they are too close or too much a part and product of the Nashville machine to escape its influence...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-01-20
★★★★★
Music for all Occasions Even looking back, with a fistful of quality albums under the band's belt, it's hard to imagine the Mavericks ever got a single note on the radio. Their breakthrough hit, 1994's "What a Crying Shame" soars and glides on a great rhythm and Raul Malo's silky tenor, but it certainly didn't fit anything else that Nashville was exporting at the time...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-01-20
★★★★★
Raul Malo has a big voice, the kind that gets him compared to Roy Orbison and opera singers. His clear tenor instrument has won him many admirers, especially the distaff kind. I caught him perform at one show in Austin where the late Governor Ann Richards, model Jerry Hall, and singer Rachel Fuller all squealed like schoolgirls in delight at his manly vocalizations. Malo never rushes his vocals, even when the music moves at a fast tempo...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-01-20
★★★★★
Raul Malo is blessed with one of the best voices in music, a rich piercing tenor he handles with the agility of Chet Aktins playing guitar. His latest, Sinners and Saints, is an album full of songs which showcase his incredible voice. The run the gamut of his storied career, from the country-rock days of The Mavericks to the Tejas sounds of his childhood and classic country covers that have marked his later years...
- roughstock.com
2010-12-07
★★★★★
On Lucky One, former Maverick Raul Malo scales down his commercial ambition and ups his artistic ones. There's no chart for his map-of-Texas music to top, but he and co-producer Steve Berlin have crafted an album that moves across the state's geography and through its history, landing with sometimes heavy, sometimes light footsteps on its Latin inheritances. His voice remains a Roy Orbison-like miracle, though the least engaging tracks are the ballads that show it off...
- www.offbeat.com
2010-11-02
★★★★★
On Lucky One,former Maverick Raul Malo scales down his commercial ambition and ups his artistic ones. There's no chart for his map-of-Texas music to top, but he and co-producer Steve Berlin have crafted an album that moves across the state's geography and through its history, landing with sometimes heavy, sometimes light footsteps on its Latin inheritances. His voice remains a Roy Orbison-like miracle, though the least engaging tracks are the ballads that show it off...
- www.offbeat.com
2010-11-02
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