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Ricky Martin Reimagining His Music

Andre S. Grindle | Brewer Maine | 01/01/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Even though Ricky Martin's late 90's/early 2000's hits were a little overplayed they were certainly infectious and they moved even me musically. It was pretty clear by the time She Bangs came out that Ricky was in slight danger of repeating himself. By this time his solo career was well over a decade old,and considering this was only his third English langauge album it was definately time for a change over. So is this album not as pop oriented and radio friendly as what came before?Well yes and no. In terms of the type of latin pop Ricky was making earlier on this isn't it. As already stated it does have his signiture sound (and it's very lucky for him that he has one these days) and here it blends it into a very dance oriented hip-hop/funk/dance style that in itself has all kinds of Afro Cuban influences anyway. It's not really anything to write home about these days when people like Shakira are devaluing that sound to a degree by making it the commercial norm for the most part. In this case "Til I Get To You","I Don't Care",the title song,"I Am","It's Alright" and "Save The Dance" all work because they all blend that robotic funk/hip-hop dance thing used all too often today with this latin polyrhythm and Ricky's strong style and personality. Much has been made of this album's nods to reggaeton and the one tune that does that the most obviously on "Drop It To Me" with Damn Yankee,while Martin's latin styles again are mixed into it for his own hybrid. "I Won't Desert You" and "This Is Good" are more rooted in his classic latin pop ballad sound and while they are good enough they don't quite have the same personality as Martin's previous tunes of the style. The uptempo tunes have most of the fire here and they have plenty to spare. At first this may not seem like the type of music one would except to hear from Ricky Martin. The sound has a rather strong sense of musical cross pollination to it and,let's face it: Ricky could up to this point easily be thought of as something of an entertaining one trick pony. This really makes you wonder though what his next musical move will be."

2005 - a year to remember in the Life of music

Gustav | 07/14/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of the few albums of pop music "you can listen trough" from the beginning to the end: gorgeous music, gorgeous lyrics and gorgeous singing - not only one or two hits... Life is about the good life: love, love and even more love - combined with the ingenious and luxurious performance of Ricky Martin... A horn of plenty for the ears, for the brain and for the heart... You can trust this artist..."