Personnel: Laura Pausini (vocals); Massimo Varini (acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Roberto Rossi (trombone); Celso Valli (piano, keyboards); Paolo Costa (bass instrument); Ian Thomas, Alfredo Golino (drums); Luca Bignardi (programming).

No stranger to success, Europop sensation Laura Pausini sold over 25 million albums in her first decade or so of recording, quite a feat for someone who was just turning 30 years old and had never broken into the lucrative English-language market. Yet she essentially struck out when she did try to cross over to that English-language market in 2002 with From the Inside. Put mildly, the album bombed stateside. Its qualities (and the qualities of stateside consumers) aside, it was the first full-fledged failure Pausini had experienced in a career of multi-million-selling albums and sold-out world tours. Here was someone who had sung for Pope John Paul II at Christmas and for Barbra Streisand at a birthday party, yet she couldn't sing for ordinary Americans, who just weren't interested in her melodramatic schmaltz. And so Pausini took a sizable break, perhaps the first of her whirlwind, world-conquering career. When she did finally emerge from her self-imposed silence, she returned with Escucha, her first Spanish-language album in four long years (not counting her best-of collection in 2001). (The album was also released in an Italian-language version, Resta in Ascolto.) Expectations were high, obviously, for she'd been gone for what felt like an eon in music years, and they were also high because of the dissatisfaction her Romance-language audience felt with her after the English-only From the Inside and its resulting mixed reception internationally. All of the tension seems to have seeped into the music of Escucha, because this is probably the most intense Pausini album to date. Sure, Europop is by nature dramatic in tone, brassy in approach, melodramatic in mood, and bombastic in practice. But man, Pausini really takes that approach to its fullest extent here, for a great many of these songs feel like "power" ballads, with their soft-hard dynamics, soaring choruses, and emotive outpourings. The album's stellar standout single, "V¡veme," is the prototype. As its chorus approaches, it builds in tension, only to explode in a burst of strings and voice worthy of a solar eclipse. "Escucha Atento," also a single, is another good example, with its outright rocking chorus (perfectly embodied by its video, which has Pausini emoting the chorus from a mountaintop -- with a setting sun behind her, no less!). And so the album goes, with the earlier-sequenced songs packing most of the punch. That's not really a figure of speech, either -- this album really does pack a punch, especially in terms of Europop. Escucha is a forceful return for Pausini, and it bodes well for her continued success. From the Inside notwithstanding, she's made a great career out of precious and passionate indulgence, topped off with her fragile beauty and Italian-Spanish accordance. Few, if any, have done it better, and for that reason, it's great to hear her regain her footing and deliver a purposeful album that just oozes everything poetic about Europop. Nope, nothing schmaltzy here -- nada. ~ Jason Birchmeier

One linguistic myth is that anyone who speaks Spanish is automatically fluent in Italian; the languages are quite similar, but similar is by no means the same as identical. However, it is true that anyone who is fluent in Italian has a definite advantage if he or she wants to learn Spanish (and vice versa), which is why Italian pop star Laura Pausini mastered Spanish and is able to record the same album in both languages. The Italian-oriented Resta in Ascolto and its Spanish-language counterpart Escucha are the same album in two different languages, but once you get past the linguistic difference, it's clear that Pausini has provided the same 11 songs with the same tracks and the same arrangements in the same order. Stylistically, there is no difference between the two; in Italian or in Spanish, Pausini's forte is slick adult contemporary, and the influences one hears on Escucha (namely, Celine Dion and Phil Collins) are also evident on Resta in Ascolto. Whether one prefers to hear Pausini in Italian or in Spanish -- or perhaps both -- is a matter of personal preference. Resta in Ascolto will no doubt have the commercial advantage in Milan, Rome, and Venice, while residents of Madrid and Mexico City will tend to favor Escucha -- and in Argentina (which has attracted an abundance of Italian immigrants over the years), it isn't hard to imagine some speakers of the lunfardo dialect (which is Spanish with a strong Italian influence) wanting to acquire both versions. The main prerequisite for liking Resta in Ascolto or Escucha is an appreciation of adult contemporary; Pausini was never a daring, cutting-edge type of artist, but from an adult contemporary perspective, her work is pleasing and above average -- and anyone who has spent a lot of time listening to Celine Dion can't go wrong with either Resta in Ascolto or its espa¤ol counterpart. ~ Alex Henderson