To essentially, deeply perceive Rauw Alejandro’s new album, it’s key to brush up on the sensuality, palatability, and enduring recognition of salsa romántica. The softer Latin Pop-adjacent model of what some name “salsa gorda” —which predominated within the ’70s, centered on instrumental improvisation, and was notably extra political than its counterpart— focuses on huge themes: love, intercourse, events. Years later, reggaeton, and its top-charting artists, would comply with an analogous trajectory.
After an immersive jaunt to the long run in cyberpunk-coded Saturno, the Puerto Rican playboy locations his ft again on terra firma. Named for a ’69 Fania basic by salsa Neoyorquina greats Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe, Cosa Nuestra clocks in at simply over an hour the place Alejandro pays conceptual homage to salsa with a grandiose audiovisual proposal. El Gran Combo de Rauw Alejandro is in full drive within the title monitor, introducing the document with a recreation of style cornerstone “Qué Lío.” Full with congas, piano, and the hum of upright bass, it’s an bold invocation that units you up for one thing refreshingly totally different.
The tragedy of Cosa Nuestra shouldn’t be that it’s a false promise, however that it’s inconsistent. For each second Rauw delivers showcases mature artistry, there’s a throwaway. The neo-merengue of “Mil Mujeres” grows till it explodes into breakbeat. Dangerous Bunny collab “Que Pasaría…” is enjoyable, however leaves you questioning what would have occurred in the event that they tried to make one thing greater than chart reggaeton. “Déjame Entrar,” whose accompanying video is certainly one of Rauw’s most luxe, seduces over Magazine’s slinky manufacturing because it strikes between gradual percussion, booming dembow, and quick guitar. The opposite singles, “Touching the Sky” and “Pasaporte,” are noxiously anodyne pop. It’s nearly shocking to see Alejandro play it so squeaky-clean understanding he can push the mainstream ahead if it needed to.
The very best moments on Cosa Nuestra channel the musical giants from Borinkén and past. These of us who have been gagged at his candlelit rendition of Laura Pausini’s 1994 smash “Se Fue” finally 12 months’s Latin Grammys shall be happy to see it right here, full with hovering electrical guitar. Alexis y Fido-assisted “Baja Pa’ Aca’” provides a masterclass in smutty harpsichord-driven perreo Ivy Queen herself would throw it again to. With Cosa Nuestra’s complete factor being bringing the previous to the current, it raises the query: The place the hell is the salsa?
