New album out this Friday.

 

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The success of this album in the U.S. right now is remarkable - back at #1 this week and a 9th week at the top in total thus far!

 

 

I caught up on a few VMAs performances this morning and 'Tití Me Preguntó' has been stuck in my head all day as a result, glad that has finally clicked. I've already been loving 'Moscow Mule', 'Después de la Playa' (that switch-up *.*), 'Ojitos Lindos' and 'El Apagón' for a few months now - boo hiss at the latter being the least streamed song on the album, out of 23 tracks 😭

I dumped some thoughts on most of this album in one of the Hot 100 threads a while ago as I thought we didn't have a thread for it here oops, turns out it's just one that didn't attract any attention :kink: Probably reiterating a lot of what I said in that thread but I ought to do a reply in here anyway x

 

The sustained success of so many of the songs (and the album itself of course) in the US has really been quite amazing to watch! It still had 10 songs on the Hot 100 15 weeks into its run. And nearly all of those are well deserved runs imo, the album is not without some filler tracks but there are surprisingly few for such a lengthy album, I put 16/23 tracks on my 'best of 2022' playlist and there are a couple more beyond that which I liked as well!

 

It is a refreshingly varied sounding album as well considering a lot of reggaetón sounds very samey to my admittedly not super cultured ears. Not that this was a huge surprise as I thought that about his last album too (I think I still sliiightly prefer that album to this one on the whole if only for the tighter tracklist but really enjoyed both of them). And even some of the more straightforward reggaetón songs on here are still great, 'Moscow Mule' in particular, close between that and 'Tití Me Preguntó' for my favourite from the album as a whole. And 'Ojitos Lindos' has been the 'LA NOCHE DE ANOCHE' of this album for me, in that it's a collab that I thought sounded amazing on paper but then was mildly underwhelmed on first listen but its charms grew on me very quickly after that.

 

The only one of the big hits from the album that I found a bit disappointing was 'Tarot', was expecting big things with it bringing back Jhay Cortez from 'DÁKITI' (still his best song <3) but this one turned out just ok for me. 'Me Porto Bonito' has been the biggest hit from the album in the end thanks to some TikTok virality, that wouldn't have been my first choice by a longshot but it has been a grower, I do really like the much needed beat switch in the second half.

 

In addition to all the ones Jade mentioned my other biggest faves from this are 'Yo No Soy Celoso' (outsold Billie Eilish's bossa nova song x), 'Neverita' and the title track. 'El Apagón' is quite an oddball on the tracklist with its randomly veering into straight up eurodance so I'm not surprised that it hasn't been the biggest hit but that is quite disappointing that it's now dead last on the album in streams (looks like it fell below 'Agosto' very recently) - although even then it's well over 100 million on Spotify so it's not doing too badly for itself :lol:

 

Biggest disappointment with the album is just that he didn't bring back ROSALÍA for another feature tbh. Hopefully next time x

 

Here are the music videos he's released from this era so far btw (most recently 'Neverita' getting one just a week ago):

 

 

 

 

Most nominated at the Latin GRAMMYs with ten nominations, including Album of the Year with Un Verano Sin Ti and Record of the Year with "Ojitos Lindos".

 

• Record of the Year: "Ojitos Lindos" (with Bomba Estereo)

• Album of the Year: Un Verano Sin Ti

• Best Urban Fusion/Performance: "Volvi" (with Aventura)

• Best Urban Fusion/Performance: "Titi Me Preguntó"

• Best Reggaeton Performance: "Yonaguni"

• Best Reggaeton Performance: "Lo Siento BB:/" (with Tainy and Julieta Venegas)

• Best Urban Music Album: Un Verano Sin Ti

• Best Rap/Hip Hop Song: "De Museo"

• Best Urban Song: "Lo Siento BB:/" (with Tainy and Julieta Venegas)

• Best Urban Song: "Titi Me Preguntó"

Although I don't share the taste, this has undoubtedly become the biggest album of the year worldwide.

its utterly amazing how his music transfers over to the US main charts even though it's non-English speaking. It always feels like quite a rare event when a non-English track does well nowadays

It’s definitely THE biggest album of the year world wide. It’s already the 16th most streamed album of all time on Spotify (for comparison Harry’s House, which is probably the next biggest album this year is only 140th) I can maybe even see it taking the title of most streamed album of all time in a couple years

its so mad looking at it's success worldwide except the UK... we truly are a prejudice society.

It hasn’t done too much better across quite a lot of Europe either.

Finally got around to listening to this myself and although it's a bit long, I think it's my favourite album of his. There's no huge highlight like 'DÁKITI', 'SORRY PAPI', 'Yo Perreo Solo' or 'MALDITA POBREZA' for me, but there are a few that run them fairly close and with more listens they could get up there.

 

Initial faves are: 'Moscow Mule', 'Después de la Playa', 'Yo No Soy Celoso', 'Nerverita', 'Enséñame a Bailar', 'Otro Atardecer', 'Andrea', 'Un Verano Sin Ti' & 'Agosto' but overall a solid album, especially considering it's 23 tracks. It does suffer slightly from a few of the tracks not really standing out from one another and a bit samey, but there's enough here to satisfy.

 

EDIT: I'm gonna assume it's him vs Beyoncé vs Adele for the main awards at the GRAMMYs.

His popularity is on a whole other level!

 

@1579584697382088704

 

Insane!

We love to see, also 13 weeks and counting at #1 in the US

Now in the top 10 most streamed albums of all time on Spotify!

'El Apagón' also has a music video of sorts now although it's only partly a music video, it's actually mostly a documentary about Puerto Rican properties being bought out by rich Americans due to tax loopholes. Needed to turn on the subtitles as it's mostly in Spanish but well worth a watch, it is quite heartbreaking - good on him using his massive platform to bring some awareness to this.

 

 

This is definitely not the song I expected such a deep music video for but the outro of it did actually allude to this issue already so that makes sense now.

Really hoping he can pull off an upset and grab "Album of the Year" at the GRAMMYs next year. I feel like he's in a strong position. They've not nominated him for many of the other "big" categories, but I'd probably put that down to "split voting" for him (i.e. not an obvious standout to be included for "Record of the Year" or "Song of the Year" etc..)