By now, most of the free world has heard Ricky Martin's new single, "She Bangs," a six-alarm concoction of blasting horns, thumping disco beats, and friendly electric guitars.
So no one should be particularly surprised to learn that Ricky Martin has followed up last year's English-language debut - a collection of vapid, high-octane Latin American pop - with a collection of vapid, high-octane Latin American pop.
It's taken a mere two years for the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink style of Latin-pop crossover music to become standard issue.
"Sound Loaded" is a skin-deep romp through those musical formulas, and as such, is a great success. Of course, that's assuming the criterion for a great Ricky Martin album is crafting the ideal soundtrack to accompany the singer's only God-given talent: shaking his butt.
Frenetic party songs dominate, with a handful of candlelit interludes thrown in to cast a warm glow on Martin's sensitive side. (Read: so fans can picture making out with him.)
Martin's singing is at best serviceable and at worst downright whiny, which actually serves the album's main theme: Women are wicked seductresses out to ruin Ricky Martin's life.
"She looks like a flower/But she stings like a bee/Like every girl in history," Martin sings in "She Bangs," a bizarre generalization that is reaffirmed in the tango "Jezabel."
"Jezabel's" protagonist has "a snaky kind of strut/It's too hot to touch/Can't trust a thing you do or say/Gotta stay away," and hammered home on "Are You in It for Love," in which Martin suspects that his sweetheart is "in it for kicks, private jets and Armani/And when the ride's over, will you even bother to call me?"
But we digress. Desmond Child and Robi Rosa, the songwriter-producers responsible for Martin's 1999 blockbusters "Livin' La Vida Loca," "Shake Your Bon-Bon," and "The Cup of Life," work their magic again here.
"Loaded" is the best, and most familiar, of the bunch: spring-loaded and candy-coated, drenched in mambo rhythms and melody.
Well-titled "Saint Tropez" is a sultry pleasure-seeker, mining the mid-tempo in a sweat-beaded swirl of synthesizers and saxophones.
Child - a one-man anthem-factory who's penned hits for Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, and Cher - teams up with female counterpart Diane Warren for some masterful cliche-recycling on "The Touch," a power ballad of such shamelessly soaring proportions that the album's other power ballad, "Come to Me," sounds like a soulful meditation.
The rest is filler along the lines of "One Night Man" - a stern pop tune that finds Martin striking a goofy pose as a promiscuous Don Juan - and Spanish-language versions of "She Bangs," "Come to Me," and "Loaded."
Let the butt-shaking begin.
Ricky Martin's status as an international superstar is unquestioned. The man behind ``Rickymania'' and ``Living La Vida Loca'' has sold more than 38 million albums and singles. His stunning performance of the international smash hit ``La Copa de La Vida'' at the 1999 Grammy Awards helped herald the overhyped ``Latin music explosion'' in this country. Ricky's sin is that he became too big too fast for America. To his detractors, he is a ready-made poster child and parody for everything deemed wrong about commercial pop: empty, forgettable music produced to sell.
Get over it, rock 'n' rollers. I heard the same stuff decades ago when they declared disco music dead, and the club scene is as vibrant as it ever was. The man is one of the best entertainers around in any language, and he simply bangs on ``Sound Loaded,'' his newest CD.
Regardless of where you stand on the Martin love-him-or-hate-him scale, he remains true to his genre: high-driving pop music, with a romantic ballad tossed in here and there to help you catch your breath or flutter your eyelashes at your main squeeze.
``She Bangs,'' the chart-climbing first hit off the album, is similar to `'Living La Vida Loca'' in frenetic energy. But it will likely also drive you crazy if it gets overplayed on the radio.
Most of the album's 15 tracks are polished, shake-your-booty dance tunes constructed with the help of such writers and producers as Desmond Child and Emilio Estefan Jr. Speaking of slow songs, the flamenco guitar-flavored ``Nobody Wants to Be Alone,'' sounds like another surefire Top 40 hit.
Martin's popularity, much like that of the late Selena, is unshakable in some parts of the Spanish-speaking world because the Puerto Rico-born entertainer makes it a point to remember his cultural roots. There are four Spanish songs on the album, including a remake of ``She Bangs.'' Martin's English-language album debut last year sold 20 million copies. This one is better in most respects and should dispel the notion that he's a passing fad or a one-album wonder.
-- Ruben Rosario
Martin also won a best male performance award at the ceremony, and he talked to the BBC backstage in his best British accent when asked about the meaning of "She Bangs". "Naughty, you think?" he said. "Why not? 'She Bangs'--it's reality. That's what it's all about. It's a bit sexual? Well, it's time to talk about sexuality in a very natural way--why not do it with music? It's something that should be done more often in every house."
Martin will return from Stockholm to perform "She Bangs" on The Rosie O'Donnell Show Friday (November 24).
-- Jason Gelman, New York
