Como Ama Una Mujer - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

The album currently has a score of 45 out of 100 from Metacritic, based on mixed to positive reviews from music critics, who agreed that Lopez's vocals had improved. The York Press, on the album, stated that "Lopez stunned many with her Spanish language Como Ama una Mujer, which at last proved that she is a major musical force."

In his review of Como ama una Mujer, Tom Patrick said "If you like Lopez and her music, then you’ll likely find her new CD enjoyable. It's good to dance to, has some emotional tunes and a bit of variety, and the Spanish influence reaches beyond the vocals into the music. If you don’t like J.Lo, however, you might find yourself wishing the album were as abbreviated as her nickname." Chris Willman from Entertainment Weekly gave the album a C+, saying: "Passions run high and pulses low on this almost entirely balladic collection, which seems ripe for a series of videos full of heartbroken hair-brushing Como Ama does represent a victory for Lopez by offering fairly persuasive proof that, contrary to rumor, she can sing, and without a regiment of background choralists. All that bulking up she's been doing at the vocal gym isn't enough, though, to turn flaccid torch songs into muscle. The production/writing team of Estéfano, Julio Reyes, and Marc Anthony mixes slight flamenco flavoring with assists from the London Symphony Orchestra; passable easy-listening-en-español weepies like "Me Haces Falta" don't begin to live up to their florid, romance-novel lyrics ("La verdad, estoy mal/Es sufrir, es gritar"— translation: "The truth is I hurt/I'm suffering, I'm screaming"). Torpor, it turns out, really is the universal language." Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic said "She acquits herself well as a vocalist − she never indulges in vocal gymnastics, and she can carry a tune strongly". He also said the album wasn't as "daring as Shakira."

James Reed from The Boston Globe gave the album a positive review−"'Como Ama Una Mujer' in spite of its soft-focus romantic leanings, is a sincere album, organic in its instrumentation and introspective in its lyrics for what is surely Lopez's most tasteful and reserved album yet. She's still Jenny from the block, only now the block has moved out of the gritty Bronx onto a quiet side street in the burbs. Lopez is far too savvy to make a straight ballads album, though. Her idea of a love song is more classic, opting for string sections over canned synthesizers. Yes, that's a real-life piano opening the title track, with a minor-chord progression that sounds oddly similar to Randy Newman's "In Germany Before the War." A delicate ballad with a simmering introduction, it opens wide to an over-the-top chorus that would sound best sung in unison by an arena of swaying fans, illuminated cellphones hoisted."