Quirky and outwardly sophisticated, yet never alienating or off-putting,
Fonseca is a perfect foil for the romantic lyric, always attempting to elevate it from its base inherent silliness. Not that there is much outright balladry on this disc. Most of the tunes here are upbeat exercises in a kind of Latin worldbeat/pop mélange. It's a big expansive, expensive sound, and given the preference of
Fonseca (or his producers) for ethnic percussion samples, it's hopelessly artificial most of the time. The exceptions are "Sigo Aquí Cantando," where the backing track of congas and trumpet absolutely smolders, and the closing track, "Vengo a Hablar," where the folk percussion vibe, through its very excess, lifts the track into a light, sensual surrealism. For the Latin pop world, it's probably very out stuff, but also please note that we're only talking about the settings of the songs. That these have more character than the songs or the singer is probably not a good thing. ~ J. Chandler