Jesse & Joy are just like any other pair of siblings. Except the Mexican-born duo have won multiple awards, including several Grammy’s. For the past ten years, they have entertained millions of people worldwide with their pop rock sound. This year, many more will have the opportunity as they release a bilingual album. “Crossover” albums are nothing new, many artists have attempted to do this, but only a few have succeeded. One of the most well-known is probably Shakira. While Laundry Service (Shakira’s crossover album), contained several hits, it was vastly different than her previous work and is in my personal opinion her weakest album. Jesse & Joy’s self-titled album seem more like a continuation of their previous work. The first single “Echoes of Love” was originally written in English, then translated into Spanish. While most of the English songs, are translated hits, they stand on their own. The lead single Echoes of Love and Helpless are the two stand out songs. Not surprisingly, both songs were originally written in English. While, Here I Go and Little Drops of Love are a bit weaker. It seems that some of the original sparks became lost in translation. The weakest and most disappointing is Run, a melodramatic love ballad. Most of the heartfelt moments seem lost, maybe I just love the original too much. Since this album does not contain a full line up of English songs, the album seems more of a “transitional crossover” album. Allowing for both brother and sister to find their sound in English. The transition seems effortless as their American-born mother always wanted them to sing in English. Hopefully this will mark another bilingual artist like Shakira, Enrique Iglesias, Marc Anthony, and Gaby Moreno, among many others. All these artist, mix both Spanish and English, but these songs are not “same song, different language” anymore. Original music is being created on both sides and fans appreciate it. While Jesse & Joy is a translated album, the translation goes both ways and their sound has not been changed dramatically to appease the American market. Many artist have dabbled in different languages like Beyoncé and Christina Aguilera, but few are able to sound like they aren’t just phonetically singing the song. Singing a song phonetically is not the same as being a bilingual performer and directly translating them can seem like an awkward use of vocabulary. Just listening to “Si Yo Fuera un Chico” (If I were a Boy), gives me goosebumps and not the good kind. Written by: Veronica Landaverde Image Courtesy of livenation.com