But he still lets his guitarist flex a bit, as on the blistering solo in the middle of “ileso.” If you think the songs sound the same-a common, if lazy, criticism of bachata-you’re not listening closely. Utopía’s sonic palette is somewhat traditional, with the requisite requinto lead guitar, segunda electric rhythm guitar, bass guitar, bongos, maracas and guiras. It’s hard to understate the impact of a prominent female voice on a big bachata record-women are almost always the subject of these lamentations, but their perspectives are rarely heard. Alexandra is the only woman on the record, and her contribution stands out for not only for its rarity but its heat and sensuality. And while the Aventura reunion will garner most of the headlines, the most important collaboration on the album is arguably the reunion of Monchy y Alexandra, the male-female duo that broke up in 2008. On the Raulín Rodriguez track “La Demanda,” his lyrics slyly reference some of Rodriguez’s best-loved hits. The results are often stunning.Įach track is molded to match his collaborators. This serves the album well-rather than try to squeeze the entire history of the genre into one 12-track LP, he instead explores his own musical DNA. Each collaboration on Utopía is with an artist he grew up listening to, so you won’t find Prince Royce or any of his contemporaries here. While he shares the spotlight with other artists, the album is still filtered through his perspective. Santos’ generosity isn’t just symbolic: “Canalla,” his collaboration with El Chaval de la Bachata, is the bachata veteran’s first new song on the chart in more than a decade. On “Bellas,” Santos’ collaboration with El Mayimbe, Santos takes a back seat to his elder on his own record. El Mayimbe is the godfather of bachata, credited with helping take it from the campo to the capital, bringing the music of the working class to the mainstream-in the Dominican Republic, at least. There are appearances by the OGs Santos grew up listening to in the late ‘80s and ‘90s, legends like Antony "El Mayimbe" Santos. The album features all four members of Santos’ group Aventura-in their prime, they were derisively been referred to as bachata’s N*SYNC, but their popularity helped raise the genre’s profile. Santos is inarguably the biggest star in bachata, but to get there he had to stand on the shoulders of others. This undercurrent of humility runs through Utopía. For his fourth LP, he could have done anything that he chose to celebrate bachata’s rich history and lift up his forebears is nothing short of remarkable. He is a massive, ground-shifting star-the Beyoncé of bachata.
#Aventura la utopia album cracked
The result cracked the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 and dominated the Latin and Tropical charts, proving that the market for Spanish-language music was big enough to render the old crossover paradigm irrelevant.
On his last LP, Golden, he pushed bachata’s boundaries through collaborations with reggaetoneros like Nicky Jam, Daddy Yankee and Ozuna and urban radio mainstays Ne-Yo and Swizz Beatz.
#Aventura la utopia album full
The album’s intro reimagines the classic Fernando Villalona merengue cut, and paints a clear picture of what you’re about to get into: “I am Dominican/I’m not going to forget my roots/I am a bachatero/It’s in my blood.” The album it introduces is a veritable syllabus for the distinctly Dominican genre of bachata, a record full of collaborations between its biggest star of the present and the legends from its past. Thus begins Utopía, the new album from Dominican-American bachata king Romeo Santos.
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