Ananda () is the eighth studio album by Mexican singer-songwriter Paulina Rubio, released on September 18, 2006, through Universal Latino. Its pop rock music incorporates latin, dance, folk, electropop, alternative and flamenco styles with instrumentation from synthpop beats, guitars, drums, synthesizers, strings and Spanish musical instruments. Its themes range from love, empowerment, and dancing. Contributions to the album's production came from a wide range of producers, including Cachorro López, Rick Wake, Tricky Stewart, Áureo Baqueiro, TOY Hernández and Gustavo Santaolalla. Among the songwriters and artist collaborators appear on the album are Xabi San Martín from La Oreja de Van Gogh, Slash from Guns N' Roses, Juanes, Julieta Venegas and Coti.
Ananda was generally acclaimed by most critics, while Cachorro López received a Latin Grammy nomination for Producer of the Year, and Rubio received a Latin Billboard Music Awards for Female Latin Pop Album given in 2007. The record was also a commercial success, reached at number one in Mexico, and top ten in Spain and Finland. In the United States, Ananda reached at number one on the Billboard Top Latin Albums, and on the Latin Pop Albums; it became her second top 40 album on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of 26,000 copies. It was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and sold 250,000 copies in the United States; also was certified double platinum in Spain by the Productores de Música de España (PROMUSICAE) for selling 160,000 copies. In Mexico received the "Tarabu de Oro" for selling 200,000 mastertone sales. To April 2007, it sold over 600,000 copies worldwide.
Four singles were released from the album: "Ni Una Sola Palabra" was released as the lead single, which peaked inside top ten in several countries, and was certified triple platinum in Spain; the consecutive singles, "Nada Puede Cambiarme" and "Ayúdame", met Latin American chart success, while the final single, "Que Me Voy A Quedar" underperformed on the charts. On March 20, 2007 Ananda was reissued as a deluxe edition "by public demand for having more material of the artist". The same day, "Me Siento Mucho Más Fuerte Sin Tu Amor" was released as the only album's digital single. To further promote the album, Rubio embarked on the Amor, Luz y Sonido Tour in February 2007, where she travelled around Europe, North America and South America.
Background and development After critical and commercial success of her album Pau-Latina (2004), Rubio embarked on an extensive concert tour in support of her record. The Pau-Latina Tour finalized in June 2005, while she announced she would take a break from her career. However, throughout that year, different media reported she was still working on new music, including an album in English, and another in Spanish.
In mid-2005, she participated in Coti's live album, Esta Mañana Y Otros Cuentos, performed the song "Otra Vez" in duet with him, and the smash-hit "Nada Fue Un Error", with the Argentine singer-songwriter, and her compatriot Julieta Venegas. During it time, Rubio began a relationship with Spanish socialite Nicolás "Colate" Vallejo-Nájera. Wanting to distract herself from the media frenzy surrounding this news, she concentrated on the development of her eighth studio album, recording new music for the first time in her house. In her residence in Di Lido Island, Miami Beach, in Florida, Rubio met with different songwriters and music producers to make possible collaborations. While secretly working with different musicians and artists, she catered for her role as a supermodel at New York Fashion Week, and the Gaudi catwalk in Spain.
In March 2006, Rubio's official website announced the pre-production of her eighth studio album. At that time, she had already visualized the concept of the album. In June, she did the photo shoot for the album cover. According to Los 40, Rubio got involved in the creation of the album, "intervening in the exchange of ideas between authors and producers." The radio network's website announced that the name of the album would be Ananda, three days after the release of "Ni Una Sola Palabra", which had already been confirmed as the album's first single. It also confirmed the release date.
Recording and production The recording sessions were carried out through 18 months, and thirteen songs were selected from the eighty contemplated. The recording process of the album was "spontaneously and naturally", which the songwriters and producers did not set a time to finish it. After receiving her first platinum certification in Spain for Ananda, Rubio said, "this circumstance gave us a lot of freedom, it allowed us not to have schedules and, if there was a good run, we did not have to stop; it has been a reflection of everything we did at our bohemian gatherings." During those months, she meet with several top Latin and international writers and producers, including Xabier San Martín from La Oreja de Van Gogh, Fernando Montesinos, Coti, Eric Sanicola, Gustavo Celis, Julieta Venegas, Juanes, Cachorro López, Gustavo Santaolalla, Toy Hernández, Maria Christensen, Adrián Sosa, Áureo Baqueiro, Tricky Stewart, as well as featuring Guns N' Roses ex-guitarist Slash. With all of them, she created a new and experimental sound for the album.
The vocal parts of the album, as well as most of its creative process and the final photo shoots took place at Rubio's Di Lido Island's (Miami Beach) home, which named Ananda, a word means 'bliss, joy' in Pāli and in Sanskrit, and can also refer to Ānanda, the primary attendant of the Buddha and one of his ten principal disciples. It was designed by her ex-boyfriend, the Spanish architect and socialite Ricardo Bofill Jr, in 2000. In Ananda, the singer set up a compact recording studio "similar to a phone booth", where recorded the songs. It was the first time she used her home studio to record music.
Rubio assured working with album's executive producer, Cachorro López, was tough, but "he has a great notion of every genre within Latin music. He was super strong with me, he demanded too much from me. But the result was worth it." By contrast, she explained that working with Toy Hernández was much more "open" and "free". "I think the vocals and arrangements are very original and fresh. I love working with him. He has a very clear sense of success and music", said. Toy Hernández was one of the first producers to reveal to the media a sneak preview of the singer's new album. In an interview to El Universal, he told the songs under his production were "fundamental" for the album, and "these will have a very urban touch", which "fused with pop", as he usually does with his productions.
In March 2006, Rubio began to make the pre-production of her eighth studio album, having already developed the concept of the album, as well the songs that would be part of it. She made sure each song had "its own personality", inasmuch as "each song and each sound has a story, a justification." She envisioned her eighth studio album as a statement of "young adult, in a period of realization" as woman and artist, and with a notorious cosmic consciousness that is reflected in her as a songwriter, inspired mainly by Kabbalah, and her study of Hinduism and Buddhism.
Title and artwork
Rubio and her record label team considered titling the album Rubia, which she thought was a "pun with the last name", but they considered it a cliché; they discarded the idea and called it Ananda, because its same Paulina' house name, where almost the entire album was recorded. The album also takes its title to cite the primary attendant of the Buddha, Ānanda, as she felt it touched on the album "mystical" concept "more free and more fresh." Also, it is a Sanskrit word, a classical language of South Asia, which in English means "happiness".
Sergio Burstein from The Houston Chronicle stated that with the album's title "[Rubio] tries to show her spiritual side, after being considered by some of her detractors as a simple representative of mainstream pop", and did a comparison with the titles of her others records "which has names that referred directly to herself." Jason Birchmeier by AllMusic, opined that the album title is upon "a worldwide movement based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda, a spiritual form of yoga"; while Professor M.J. Alonso Seoane affirmed in his sociological analysis, Buddhism and the Media, that the title and concept of the album "seems to return to the spirit of the 60's and the flower power", however, he was outraged, claiming that Rubio uses Buddhism "as a marketing product."
The artwork was shot by French fashion photographer Lionel Deluy in Rubio's residence in Miami Beach, Florida. The main color in the picture are magenta and shades of gold to reinforce the album's title. Features a close-up shot of Rubio positioned herself in a bold pose while wearing pale make up, with the blonde hair fur on her shoulders. Other pictures from the same shoot serve as the artworks for the "Nada Puede Cambiarme" and "Ayúdame" singles, where Rubio looks "Fresh, relaxed and very sensual."
By reflecting Rubio's spiritual motifs, Ananda is considered a "mystical exploration".
Music style The standard edition of Ananda is about 49 minutes long, consisting of 13 tracks, while the ITunes Store edition adds a bonus song, "Me Siento Mucho Más Fuerte Sin Tu Amor", as the fourteenth track. Ananda was written and produced by successful Latin artists such as Juanes, Julieta Venegas, Coti, Xabier San Martín from La Oreja de Van Gogh, Toy Selectah, Gustavo Santaolalla and Cachorro López, with additional writing credit of Rubio, on "Ayúdame", "Hoy", "Lo Que Pensamos", and "Tú Y Yo".
Composition Ananda is a pop rock genre-spanning record, departing from the predominantly Latin sound of Rubio's previous works. It also incorporates dance-pop genre, what gave Rubio "liberty of playing with different rhythms." According to What's Up Magazine staff, the album is "a mixture of dance floor beats, electric guitars, keyboards and the occasional ranchera/cumbia/pop ballad" so the album swims through intricate Latin and folk instrumentation. Music critic, Jason Birchmeier, reviewing for Allmusic, felt Ananda "was a stretch from the relatively straightforward Latin pop of Paulina", launching "fully embrace" pop-rock. Rhapsody said with dance-pop genre, the album "it's quirkier than we've ever heard it" of Rubio. The artist pointed out that all the songs are autobiographical, and represent a part of her personality. "Each one of the songs is a part of me, the themes I deal with are how I am..... they know Paulina as aggressive, strong, but I also have my sweet side, of tenderness," she said.
In some track, between the start of one song and another, the album includes skits and ambience that reflected everyday moments. Terra described them as "everyday, harmonic sounds" that make "a total listening experience for the listener."
Songs "Ni Una Sola Palabra", the opening track, is an uptempo pop rock tune driven by a "strength of tough guitar-pop", and synth-pop accents with 70's vibes. Its irresistibly new wave chorus give input "Rubio's smoky, expressive voice" over a regular rockbeat. Written by Xabi San Martín from La Oreja de Van Gogh, the song's nostalgic lyrics captures the feelings that persist when love begins to disappear in a relationship, to the extent that nothing is said to each other either with actions or with words. The "hymn" optimistic "Nada Puede Cambiarme" is a pop rock driven by a bouncy arrangement of drums and strongly acoustic and electric guitars, that has Guns N' Roses's Slash on lead guitar. The song describes their positive approach a past love, celebrating herself, despite the breakup.