I may have my reservations about Ricky Martin as a person, but I will stand by my belief that he has been (and has the potential to continue to be) connected with some great songs (including the far too little known "Til I Get To You"). Though his most recent studio album, Life, may have not had too much of an impact on U.S. top 40 radio, he's still popular enough worldwide that MTV decided to bring him in for a session of MTV Unplugged. His live acoustic performances of a bunch of songs (all in Spanish) were recorded and shown on TV and released as an album this month. This song was the lead single, which, if he was intent on releasing a single from this album, was a good choice.Tu Recuerdo (feat. Mari of Chambao and Tommy Torres)--I was mildly enchanted with this song for a few days this week. I'm not sure how much of it has to do with Ricky himself; it might have a lot to do with the backing part (not Mari's accompanying part, but just the backing voices in the chorus) and the guitar part. Nevertheless, Ricky has his moments here, especially when you can hear him getting too close to the microphone (as in the beginning)--there's a warmth and almost a sensitivity to his singing. My preconceptions may be unduly influencing me, but I do feel like he starts to go a bit too over the top near the end; overall, though, I do really like it (and I'm generally leery of live songs and acoustic songs)--it's the sort of song I could see having an effect on you if you're in an emotional mood. The toned-down nature of this song helped with my enchantment--it's not really sweet, nor is it really sad, falling instead somewhere in between, with perhaps a hint of nostalgia that never slows down its mid-tempo pace. In feel, it's closer to "Private Emotion" than "Livin' La Vida Loca."
To buy Ricky Martin's album MTV Unplugged, go here (physical) or here (digital; you'll have to search for "Ricky Martin").
Next up: a B-side from an artist with an album coming out this week.
2 comments:
Ah ricardo martini - remember those yoga pics of him on the beach with some dude? Priceless... he's another artist who has dodgy taste in single releases recently. I so could've handled his Life album ALOT better than it was...it's pretty much been binned now, like JJ's 20yr old (although quite rightly in the latters case)
I do indeed rememeber those photos (I think)! I agree about Life...though, in style, it wasn't what most non-Spanish speakers associate him with, it did have some quite nice songs on it...they really tried to relaunch him as urban with "I Don't Care," though, and even if the song had been top-notch, I'm not sure that it would have been enough for him to break away from previous impressions of him (then again, Nelly Furtado did have quite the successful image makeover, so who knows--maybe with better song choices, it could have worked!)
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