Alejandro Fernandez already had one ranchera classic under his belt -- his exceptional debut album -- when Que Seas Muy Feliz came out. But this was the record where everything came together. The inherent elegance of Fernandez's voice was matched with the most distinctive songs and arrangements of his career to date, along with the warm, enveloping mix of strings and distant trumpets, the signature of omnipresent producer Pedro Ramírez who, during the early '90s, repeatedly coaxed astonishingly natural sounds from nascent digital technology. This was lavishly packaged with photos of Alejandro in a charro suit. Where he had initially been packaged as a sort of pretty boy, and had looked slightly out of his element on the cover of his preceding disc -- a full-out ranchera standards affair -- the cover of Que Seas Muy Feliz shows a man fully aware of his iconic folk identity (whether that was actually his identity one cannot know), wearing his elaborate mariachi outfit as naturally as one would Sunday afternoon fancy dress. The cover seemed to be making the statement that there was going to be more gravity in this collection of songs, that here Alejandro would step outside of the shadow of his father (which, of course, he had already done) and simultaneously claim his place as practitioner of a grand tradition of serious music, and that ranchera was Mexico's classical music, not simply its folk music. But actually, the difference between this disc and what preceded and came after it is quite subtle. Maybe it is just the packaging and the sequencing, but for some reason, this is Alejandro's ranchera disc for the rest of the world.

1		Que Bueno
2		Que Será de Mi
3		Llorando Penas
4		Como Quien Pierde una Estrella
5		Ojo por Ojo
6		Paso del Norte
7		Uno Mas
8		Y Despues
9		Me Recordaras Llorando
10		La Mitad Que Me Faltaba
11		Que Seas Muy Feliz
12		El Potrillo