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She lives parallel lives. And even when she misses, she hits.
These are the thoughts that occur to this long-time Gloria fan upon close and repeated listenings to Into the Light. This 1991 release shows Gloria losing the girl-next-door sweetness and putting on some ‘tude. Some of it doesn’t work. Some of it does.
In my view, Gloria moves outside her strength with the edgier tracks. Yet she is so good and the energy of this 1991 incarnation so powerful that the result is still very fine.
The album hits its apex on track one with the near-title-track ‘Coming Out of the Dark’. This being an English-language production in the main, Gloria’s Latin roots are discernible not so much in language as in the popular Roman Catholic framework of her pensive reflections. This sort of default spirituality pervades many of her sung conclusions on sex, parenthood, that aspect of amoral universe that is often labeled ‘karma’, and life-long commitment in a world where such is often honored in the breach.
One of my favorite tunes is ‘Remember Me With Love’, a sensitive plea to a lover who might, just might, go away some day. Also, Gloria finds her more customary GloriaVoice in the splendid ‘Live for Loving You’, the uptempo lament over Cuba entitled ‘Mama Yo Can’t Go’. The mixed-language title and the ambivalence about whether the exile can ever truly go back is classic Gloria. The Portuguese version of ‘Don’t Wanna Lose You’ is superb. The live bonus track (‘Words Get in the Way’) is, quite simply, why we loved her from the beginning.
Perhaps an artist of Ms. Estefan’s stature can afford the occasional zig-zagging among the genres. It seems to have done her no harm here.
I’m just glad she didn’t lose her way. Whether articulated as ‘Coming Out of the Dark’ or INTO THE LIGHT, this 1991 offering was an incremental step along Gloria’s journey from strength to strength.
Canter Bridge 
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