On her follow-up to 2018's star-studded, genre-blurring Isolation, Colombian-American singer Kali Uchis unapologetically arrives as a top-tier urbano stylist. Miedo (Del Amor y Otros Demonios) ∞ whose title translates as "Without Fear (Of Love and Other Demons) ∞", is a radical next step. Rather than criss-cross neo-soul, EDM, and Latin pop, Uchis seeks to redefine the "classic." Here she works with more Latin trap and reggaeton-centered producers including Tainy and Manuel Lara, and Leeds-based pop visionary Josh Crocker. In another assertion of her hard won identity, she sings almost exclusively in Spanish. (Her label strongly advised against releasing it, fearing Anglos would not embrace a foreign language recording and didn't promote it.) Uchis is fearless in stretching her sound past funky breaks, slippery R&B, and spaced-out jazz tropes to offer bracing evolutionary conceptions of reggaeton, cumbia, and boleros, seamlessly juxtaposing them with her own brand of Latin pop and soul. While there are a number of fine collaborations here, including the futurist Afro-Latin soul of "Fue Mejor" with PartyNextDoor (Jahron Anthony Brathwaite), the spiky trap of "Aqui Yo Mando!" with Rico Nasty, and the trap groove of "La Luz" with Jhay Cortez, the best jams are reinventions of vintage boleros such as opener "La Luna Enamorada," a tune that dates back to the 1940s but was a 1964 hit for Cuban rockers Los Zafiros. She slows down the tempo, allows Crocker to thread incantatory beats and Beach Boys-style four-part harmonies into the mix, and follows the melody and form without deviation. "Vaya con Dios" -- an original, not the classic Mexican song -- is rendered with sampled strings, a low-tuned rubbery bassline, and reverbed guitars amid smoky hip-hop beats. When she reaches for her falsetto, she soars. "Que Te Pedi" is a classic Cuban bolero composed by Fernando Lopez Mulens and Gabriel Luna De la Fuente. Introduced by the sound of a radio dial slipping across stations, its stately horns, congas, and bassline frame her most dramatic, passionate singing on the album. "De Nadie" is a seductive Latin soul tune with alternating breaks and hip-hop beats, while self-composed closer "Angel Sin Cielo" is almost psychedelic as it drifts and hovers dramatically with bossa-styled acoustic guitars and her stretched and altered vocal pitches that bring her soprano down to tenor range and jazz phrasing. Sin Miedo (Del Amor y Otros Demonios) ∞ marks the spot where Uchis comes into her own, not only as a true song stylist but also as an innovator.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

A beautifully executed and produced album by Omara Portuando, the only woman to appear on the original Buena Vista Social Club recordings. Portuando, who is one of Cuba's most acclaimed musicians and a featured performer at the Tropicana, has shown here that, at 70, she still possesses the qualities that helped develop her stardom on her native island. This recording, which covers a variety of traditional musical styles, from son to guajira to bolero, makes it easy to see why critics have called her the Edith Piaf of Cuba and "The Fiancée of Feeling." The style, especially on the second track, "He Perdido Contigo," evokes a nostalgic, old-fashioned sentiment, and the songwriting is classic. Featured performers include Rubén González on piano, Eliades Ochoa and Compay Segundo on guitar, and a full string section including Angel and Arelis Zaldivar. The performances are lively and tight, creating an album that feels nearly perfect. A full set of liner notes, including English translations of all of the lyrics, makes the album even more accessible.© Stacia Proefrock /TiVo

On her follow-up to 2018's star-studded, genre-blurring Isolation, Colombian-American singer Kali Uchis unapologetically arrives as a top-tier urbano stylist. Miedo (Del Amor y Otros Demonios) ∞ whose title translates as "Without Fear (Of Love and Other Demons) ∞", is a radical next step. Rather than criss-cross neo-soul, EDM, and Latin pop, Uchis seeks to redefine the "classic." Here she works with more Latin trap and reggaeton-centered producers including Tainy and Manuel Lara, and Leeds-based pop visionary Josh Crocker. In another assertion of her hard won identity, she sings almost exclusively in Spanish. (Her label strongly advised against releasing it, fearing Anglos would not embrace a foreign language recording and didn't promote it.) Uchis is fearless in stretching her sound past funky breaks, slippery R&B, and spaced-out jazz tropes to offer bracing evolutionary conceptions of reggaeton, cumbia, and boleros, seamlessly juxtaposing them with her own brand of Latin pop and soul. While there are a number of fine collaborations here, including the futurist Afro-Latin soul of "Fue Mejor" with PartyNextDoor (Jahron Anthony Brathwaite), the spiky trap of "Aqui Yo Mando!" with Rico Nasty, and the trap groove of "La Luz" with Jhay Cortez, the best jams are reinventions of vintage boleros such as opener "La Luna Enamorada," a tune that dates back to the 1940s but was a 1964 hit for Cuban rockers Los Zafiros. She slows down the tempo, allows Crocker to thread incantatory beats and Beach Boys-style four-part harmonies into the mix, and follows the melody and form without deviation. "Vaya con Dios" -- an original, not the classic Mexican song -- is rendered with sampled strings, a low-tuned rubbery bassline, and reverbed guitars amid smoky hip-hop beats. When she reaches for her falsetto, she soars. "Que Te Pedi" is a classic Cuban bolero composed by Fernando Lopez Mulens and Gabriel Luna De la Fuente. Introduced by the sound of a radio dial slipping across stations, its stately horns, congas, and bassline frame her most dramatic, passionate singing on the album. "De Nadie" is a seductive Latin soul tune with alternating breaks and hip-hop beats, while self-composed closer "Angel Sin Cielo" is almost psychedelic as it drifts and hovers dramatically with bossa-styled acoustic guitars and her stretched and altered vocal pitches that bring her soprano down to tenor range and jazz phrasing. Sin Miedo (Del Amor y Otros Demonios) ∞ marks the spot where Uchis comes into her own, not only as a true song stylist but also as an innovator.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

In 2011, Alejandro Sanz left Warner after 20 immensely successful years. Predictably, the label soon released Colección Definitiva, a four-CD/DVD box set surveying the eight studio albums Sanz made for the label, from 1991's Viviendo Deprisa to 2009's Paraíso Express, as well as a myriad of live and compilation releases (including the three-CD/DVD package Grandes Éxitos 91_04, which overlaps considerably with this collection). The first two CDs of Colección Definitiva focus on Sanz's many greatest hits, such as "Corazón Partío" and "Cuando Nadie Me Ve." The third disc is devoted to Sanz's appearances on other artists' (Shakira, El Canto del Loco, Miguel Bosé, etc.) albums, while the fourth gathers together 13 of Sanz's duets, including those with Ketama, Ivan Lins, Joaquín Sabina, and Enrique Morente, among others. The DVD features all of Sanz's video clips. A downsized edition containing only the first two greatest-hits disc is also available.© Mariano Prunes /TiVo

Melenas' first two albums were garage rock-influenced, peppy, fresh-faced indie pop that hovered around the B+ mark. Following the release of 2020's Dias Raros, the Spanish quartet did a sonic rethink and traded out the jangling guitars for vintage synths while expanding their range of influences from the garage to areas as different as the Radiophonic workshop where Stereolab learned their tricks to the oldies record bin where albums by OMD and the Human League could be found. It makes for quite a stylistic left turn, but on Ahora, Melenas make it work amazingly well and in the process, they get a solid A. Switching between moody, machine-driven ballads ("Flor de la Frontera," "Dos Pasajeros") and bubbling uptempo pop like "1986" (which sounds like a Flying Nun classic given a keyboard injection) the group display the same charming melodic sense and sure-handed playing as they have in the past, only now they've added inspiration to the mix. They handle the synths like they were guitars, adding textures by strumming and inserting bleeps and bloops like they were riffs, while taking the occasional solo that might sound overdone on guitar, but sounds perfect here. Check the expert layering of keys on the closing "1.000 Cancione." Along with all the adroitly arranged electronics, there are live drums powering some of the more Motorik-influenced songs like "K2," and the guitars reappear to play a supporting role with a double shot of droning and early Lab indie rock goodness on "Tu y Yoi" and "Mal." Ahora is a stunning, daring rebirth for the band, full of songs that sound wonderfully hooky on first listen, but also have the kind of depth and innate emotional content that give them an ageless sound. © Tim Sendra /TiVo

Insomniac was designed for late nights at the club but Enrique Iglesias’ 2010 sequel Euphoria is as bright as its title, a firm return to romance for the loverman. Not that he’s entirely abandoned the idea of a dancefloor hit -- not with the blaring Pitbull collabo “I Like It,” complete with ice-sheet synths and an “All Night Long” interpolation, playing such a prominent role on the record -- nor does he rely on old-fashioned balladry, sometimes drawing from the chilly textures of Ryan Tedder on his duet with Nicole Scherzinger, letting Akon in for an Auto-Tuned reggae groove on “One Day at a Time,” which is enough for Euphoria to feel modern without alienating older audiences. Despite these contemporary flourishes, the heart of this album resides in Iglesias’ romantic balladeering, the kind of croon that crosses cultures, so much so that the tracks here slip between Spanish and English without much notice. No matter the language, Enrique maintains the seductive mood on Euphoria.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Most notably featuring a smash hit bilingual version of the Ben E. King standard "Stand by Me," the eponymous album debut by Prince Royce is typical of the urban bachata style that arose in the wake of Aventura. The sensational success of Aventura during the 2000s led to innumerable other urban bachata acts from New York such as Bachata Heightz, a group from the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan that made its album debut a couple months earlier. Fortunately, Prince Royce is one of the more promising urban bachata acts to emerge in some time. Hailing from the Bronx, the photogenic 20-year-old bachatero has an enchanting voice and drops seductive asides throughout his debut album, often switching from Spanish to English when the moment comes to whisper something sexy. Granted, he has a tendency to name-check himself far too often (not just on the lead single either, but on practically every song on the album), but it's easily excusable when the music is as well produced as it is here. Credit Andrés Hidalgo with the crisp production job, which is often spare but adds touches of urban beats here and there. The final ten seconds of album highlight "Corazón Sin Cara" are a perfect example of this. It's not until those final ten seconds that the urban beats kick in after three and a half minutes of more or less typical bachata graced with an elegant string arrangement. The restraint on behalf of Hidalgo is remarkable. After a couple listens to the song, you'll find yourself eagerly awaiting those precious few beats, which fade out almost as soon as they kick in. Of course, the smash hit cover version of "Stand by Me" is also notable. Though it's sung primarily in English, the few times that Royce switches to Spanish are memorable. It's a tasteful, surprisingly straightforward cover version that once again shows great restraint by Hidalgo. While there are other standout songs, "Tu y Yo" in particular, Prince Royce is a short album. If you subtract the superfluous remix of "Stand by Me," there are only nine songs that barely surpass a half-hour's worth of music.© Jason Birchmeier /TiVo

Puerto Rican artist Chayanne went on tour around Latin America before the release of his greatest-hits collection, Grandes Exitos. In every colorful and dynamic show the talented singer, actor, and dancer went through his Latin pop music career as this album does. It includes the romantic ballads "Completamente Enamorados," "Tu Pirata Soy Yo," and "Tiempo de Vals" and the Latin dance/pop of "Fiesta en América," "Este Ritmo Se Baila Asi," and "Provocame," including remixes of "Baila Baila" and "Salomé." In addition, Grandes Exitos includes three previously unreleased songs: "Y Tu Te Vas," composed by Venezuelan singer/songwriter Franco De Vita; "Quisiera Ser"; and "Torero." A well-crafted record with contributions from Donato Poveda, Estéfano, and José Maria Cano.© Drago Bonacich /TiVo

The title for Luis Miguel's 1999 pop album Amarte Es un Placer translates to "Loving You Is a Pleasure," and by that alone one can deduce that the material consists of romantic music, mostly in the form of ballads. His previous pop album, 1996's Nada Es Igual, had elements (albeit small) of hip-hop and dance, but this one steers almost completely into adult contemporary terrain. The upbeat songs, such as the album's first single, "Sol, Arena y Mar," and "Quiero," are augmented with strong horn sections (which are typically present in Miguel's music), giving the songs a jazzy, sophisticated, adult-leaning feel. "Te Propongo," the album's only true dance number, is also one of the album's most interesting songs. Other upbeat highlights include "Tu Solo Tu" and "Dimelo En un Beso," one of the album's more soulful efforts. The rest is mostly romantic, sometimes overblown ballads, including "No Me Fio," which harks back to 1980s power anthems. Romantic ballads, however, are what the fans have come to expect from this artist, who is also responsible for the album's flawless production. As an interesting side note, this album was released at the height of the North American Latin music boom (spearheaded by Ricky Martin). Miguel, instead of gearing towards a more youth-oriented market, stayed true to the music that had made him an international superstar, and in turn the album received a Grammy.© Jose F. Promis /TiVo

This Mexican superstar has been up for more Grammys than one can shake a stick at, should one be inclined toward such an action. It's easy to see why after one listen to Me Estoy Enamorando. Lush string orchestras mesh with romantic acoustic guitars to provide the perfect bed for Fernandez's sensuous, emotive singing. The accent is on ballads like "No Se Olvidar" and "Yo Naci Para Amarte," a simple case of an artist playing to his strengths. Fernandez knows how to get inside of a slow, heartfelt tune and make it his own. While his core audience will surely be pleased by this album, it will also have an across-the-board appeal to anyone with a taste for the smooth and sensual. Boys, hold onto your girlfriends, he's a heartbreaker.© TiVo