On this tiny, symbolic bar in New York Metropolis, he celebrated one other muse for the challenge: the holidays he spent on the west coast of Puerto Rico as a child. The album’s gratifying transitions illustrate a summer time in el caribe—what it feels prefer to be on these seashores, the colloquial phrases and dialects of the Spanish-language Caribbean. The sound of seagulls within the track-to-track transition between “Agosto” and “Callaita” completely evokes the feel and ambiance of the seashore. With dazzling eclecticism, Dangerous Bunny touches on nu-disco, psychedelia, electro-pop, and home on reggaetón-based songs like “Celebration” with Rauw Alejandro, “Tarot” that includes Jhay Cortez, and one among its most political tracks, “El Apagón.” The second half brings a wealth of sudden collaborations: On “Ojitos Lindos” and “Otro Atardecer,” respectively, Colombian cumbia-electro group Bomba Estéreo and indie-pop band the Marías adapt seamlessly into the challenge’s world.
The B-side additionally serves as a melodic discourse on Puerto Rican livelihood. Puerto Rican duo Buscabulla joins for “Andrea,” an indie-pop track that touches on femicide and gender violence. “El Apagón” (“The Blackout”) is a center finger to these privatizing the island’s electrical grid and seashores, furthering the displacement and gentrification of communities in Puerto Rico, the world’s oldest colony. “Que se vayan ellos/Lo que me pertenece a mí/Se lo quedan ellos” (Allow them to go/What belongs to me/They’ll preserve it for themselves), sings Dangerous Bunny’s girlfriend, Gabriela Berlingeri, within the outro. “Esta es mi tierra” (That is my land). The track’s starting rhythm is the heartbeat of bomba, a style birthed by enslaved Africans to protect custom that right now symbolizes resistance and liberation.
The reality is: perreo, whining the waist, and shaking ass are all types of protest and expression, and activated equally all through the album. Whereas the B-side feels designed for whining down and deep considering, the A-side units the tone for teteos, cookouts, and seashore events, protecting reggaetón tradition on the forefront with appearances from native legends like Tony Dize on “La Corriente” and Plan B’s Chencho Corleone on “Me Porto Bonito.” A significant a part of the manufacturing influences belong to the Dominican Republic, although precise Dominican artists are conspicuously absent. “Después de la Playa,” which opens with synths that transition to a Dominican mambo a bit over a minute in, is without doubt one of the solely songs to credit score a Dominican artist by title: In opposition to a basis of guira, tambora, and piano, you hear, “I’m right here with el Apechao”—a reference to Dahian el Apechao, an instrumentalist, singer, and composer with a formidable historical past of collaboration with mambo and reggaetón artists alike. The shortage of seen illustration for extra Black Dominican artists on an album so indebted to their affect seems like a missed alternative.
