It was over a year ago that a certain Enrique Martin Morales (as
\nit’s listed on AllMusic.com) stepped onto the Grammy stage and into
\npop culture. A well-known artist in his native Spanish market,
\nMartin had achieved tremendous success worldwide with hits like
\n“Maria” and “La Copa De Vida (The Cup Of Life).” It was his
\nrendition of this song that blasted him into American
\nconsciousness. Within a month, he had his first mega-hit, “Livin’
\nLa Vida Loca,” on the Billboard charts and soon his album appeared
\nand went platinum in a hurry. He then found himself on a sold-out
\nAmerican tour, stopping allow the way to pick up awards from all
\nover the world.<\/p>\n
So how do you follow all that?<\/p>\n
It appears that Martin found his answer to be that he could not.
\nTherefore, rather than trumpet his return and his follow-up to the
\n1999 album,
\nSound Loaded<\/i> has crept on everyone. Sure, there was the
\nfirst single, “She Bangs,” out on MTV, VH-1, Much Music, The Box,
\netc., etc. But, without the anticipation that followed last year’s
\nGrammys, this album has had a more subtle entry into the charts.
\nPerhaps that is good, as it strips away the fair-weather fans and
\ngives Martin a more honest appraisal of his following in the
\nU.S.<\/p>\n
Of course, all of this matters little when considering the
\noverall quality of
\nSound Loaded<\/i>. Re-teaming with the same writers and producers
\nof his self-titled album, it may have been Martin’s idea to give
\nhis new fans more of what they wanted. Roby Rosa, Desmond Child,
\nJon Secada, Emilio Estefan, Jr. and others ensure that their star
\ncenterpiece has more enough grooves, beats and rhythms with which
\nto shake his bon-bon.<\/p>\n
The album kicks off with the aforementioned single, “She Bangs.”
\nLet me state right up-front that it is very catchy. It’s very
\ndanceable and the chorus will stick in your head. It’s, simply put,
\nthe best song in the album. Other danceable tracks include the
\nvery-good “Amor,” which contains a lot of that Spanish flavor, the
\nMiddle-Eastern tinged “One Night Man” and the poppy “Are You In It
\nFor Love.” All range in the good scale and should provide Martin
\nwith more live ammo for his shows.<\/p>\n
Then, there’s the ballad side of Martin. The best one is “Nobody
\nWants To Be Lonely,” a softer, sadder turn than the rest of his
\nsongs. Others include “Come To Me,” the Child\/Diane Warren-penned
\n“The Touch” and “If You Saw Her.” They tend to be more
\nstandard-fare and average and along par for the course for Martin.
\nIt’s the types of songs that my cousin swoons over when she hears
\nthe album. (And, I’m guessing, it has the same effect with many of
\nRicky’s female following).<\/p>\n
Alas, the biggest problem with this album is its straight and
\nnarrow attitude. This is nothing that we have heard from Martin
\nbefore. Unlike the previous leaps he has made – from soft Spanish
\ncrooner and balladeer to butt-shaking maestro de fiesta to
\ninternational sensation –
\nSound Loaded<\/i> will not surprise or shock anyone. “Saint
\nTropez” swings, but doesn’t make you stand and dance. “Come To Me”
\nis a standard ballad – is it just me or is he constantly calling
\nfor women to come to him? “Loaded” and “Jezebel” are more danceable
\nsongs that are not bad. They just lack that little something that
\nmakes good pop songs great.<\/p>\n
\nSound Loaded<\/i> is not bad. On the contrary, it’s probably a
\nslightly better album than
\nRicky Martin<\/i>. However, it seems that with this album, Martin
\nis aiming to see who wants to keep shaking their bon-bons to him. I
\ndo see some signs of growth in his music. Perhaps they’ll be
\napparent in the next album.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":25747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6525],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36953","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ricky-martin","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36953"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36953"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}