I've owned this album for several years, but decided to give it a fresh listen all the way through for this thread. It's an album I got in the first place because I like exotica a lot—and to a lesser extent because I like mambo. It's a good album, but to be honest I'd probably be more likely to listen to it all the way through if Yma's vocals were not on it because the band is fantastic. It's not that I dislike vocals either—they're quirky and cool and just the kind of thing that makes exotica appealing in the first place—it's just that I need to take them in small doses. For me, this album works best the way I usually listen to it: on shuffle in a playlist filled with Esquivel, Martin Denny, Les Baxter, Robert Drasnin, and Chaino.
7/10
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