After making history with his last album, Bad Bunny is taking a lawn chair to the beach and basking in his success with his new LP, Un Verano Sin Ti (“A Summer Without You”). Across a whopping 23 tracks, the Puerto Rican superstar celebrates the music of the Caribbean with his signature emo flow. In addition to the usual suspects of reggaeton and Latin trap, he explores influences that include merengue, bomba, and dembow music. He continues to push reggaeton forward with alternative acts like The Marías and Bomba Estéreo, adding touches of Afrobeat and house music in mix. With his most fun and colorful album yet, Bad Bunny is ready for the summer season.
The rapper released a trio of albums in 2020, culminating in El Último Tour Del Mundo making history as the first all-Spanish language album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. The pressure was on to see if he could outdo the success of his previous album — but he’s not sweating it.
For Un Verano Sin Ti, Bad Bunny recruited Puerto Rican hit-maker Tainy, who was behind the most bombastic tracks on YHLQMDLG, and MAG, the mastermind of El Último Tour Del Mundo’s alternative edge. With the world starting to open up again following the COVID-19 shutdown that marked the darker mood of his last LP, he’s letting the sun in and taking his fans on a getaway to the Caribbean.
Though 23 songs can appear to be languorous, Bad Bunny splits the experience into two parts. On Side A, he makes up for the reggaeton that was lacking on the trap-heavy El Último. Fans’ perreo dreams come true with “Party” featuring Rauw Alejandro, who is another Puerto Rican star on the rise. As Alejandro sings, they come through with a “Un bellaqueo bien nasty.” In this alluring reggaeton romp with an electronic touch, both artists lay their sexy swagger on thick.
Later, Bad Bunny reunites with Jhay Cortez for “Tarot”; after pushing towards a more EDM direction on the global smash “Dákiti,” they keep their reggaeton on course in this hypnotic club banger. Chencho Corleone, who is featured on recent hits by Alejandro and Anitta, appears on the spellbinding “Me Porto Bonito.” Bad Bunny knows how to conjure up nostalgia among his millennial fans when he sings in Spanish, “In the 2000s, she listened to RBD and now she wants to perreo all night long on the wall.”
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Tagged: Album Reviews, Alternative Music, FEATURES, Hip-Hop, Latin, music, music blog, Pop, Reggaeton, Reviews