latin · 2000
Fíjate Bien
Juanes
Before Juanes became a stadium-filling romantic, this 2000 debut was a Colombian rock record with landmines on its mind, its title track a warning to watch your step in a country littered with them.
"Fíjate Bien" itself sets the tone: a mid-tempo guitar figure and a chorus that literally means "look closely, where you step," aimed at campesinos navigating a landscape sown with explosives. That gravity keeps the album from being just a showcase for his fretwork, though the fretwork is real — "Volcán" and "Ahí Le Va" prove he can drive a band hard. What surprises now is how much of the later balladeer is already here in "Podemos Hacernos Daño," the tenderness sitting inches from the violence. It's the sound of a guitarist deciding his subject would be his own wounded country, and betting he could make that sell.