Gracias (1997-2007)

After ten years of recording activity and seven albums, most of them platinum-selling Top Ten hits, Malú released the greatest-hits CD/DVD collection Gracias. Comprised entirely of previously released material, the 18-track CD that comes packaged as part of Gracias is sequenced non-chronologically and includes a few rarities. Fairly well-balanced between all six of her studio albums and excluding anything from her live album Por una Vez (2004), the CD includes two songs from Aprendiz (1998), two songs from Cambiarás (1999), four songs from Esta Vez (2001), one song from Otra Piel (2003), three songs from Malú (2005), and three songs from Desafío (2006). The three rarities tacked on to the end of the CD include "Contigo Aprendí," a duet with Mexican pop superstar Alejandro Fernández from his live album Mexico-Madrid: En Directo y Sin Escalas (2005); "Pueblo Blanco," a contribution to the Joan Manuel Serrat tribute album Serrat...Eres Único, Vol. 2 (2005); and "En Otra Parte," a contribution to the various-artists live in-concert album Tatuaje (2000). The DVD that comes packaged as part of Gracias documents a 23-song concert performance from September 2007 in Córdoba, Spain, that is comprised primarily of Malú's greatest hits. The first compilation to chronicle Malú's recording output, Gracias only includes about half of her singles to date and could have easily been expanded to a double-disc CD collection. As it stands as a single-disc collection, however, it's filled to the brim and well-compiled, selecting all of her biggest hits and leaving the secondary ones aside. Even though the accompanying live DVD is somewhat excessive, driving up the price more than necessary, Gracias is a representative summary of Malú's first decade of recording activity (1997-2007) and makes for an ideal entry point to her back catalog.