Maluma - Papi Juancho Music Album Reviews

The Colombian pop star’s latest is low stakes, neither offensive nor remarkable, the sound of a reggaetonero you’d expect to find on a mood board for a fashion campaign.

Can you really be macho if your best work comes from other women? Such is the quandary with Colombia’s Maluma. The music of the 26-year-old pop star—born Juan Luis Londoño Arias—has long been defined by a latent machismo. But other than a brief moment where online petitions sprung up in protest of his song “Cuatro Babys”—which one Spanish municipality deemed “an apologia for violence against women”—his biggest moments have been with older, more established women. He first dipped his toe into the mainstream with his fellow Colombian Shakira on their duet “Chantaje,” cracking Billboard’s Hot 100, and then again on Madonna’s ode to his hometown “Medellín” managing to out-sexy the veteran culture vulture with a sultry croon. And when he makes his debut on the silver screen in the forthcoming feature “Marry Me,” it will be at the behest of Jennifer Lopez.
But women artists are conspicuously absent from his latest album Papi Juancho, relegated to the familiar reggaetón roles of emotional foils, signifiers of material wealth, and sex objects. Maluma says the character is an alter ego, lonely horny quarantine sessions while hiding out from the pandemic. But it’s par for the course for the music he’s made throughout his career; after toning down the raunch for his last and most successful album to date, 11:11, he’s digressed to his tried and true lothario persona.

And it mostly works, depending on your perspective. Much of Maluma’s schtick feels prefabricated, the kind of reggaetonero you’d expect to find on a mood board for a fashion campaign. The warm and bright melodies are aesthetically pleasing but hollow. It goes beyond the Calvin Klein campaigns and Miami Vice neon visuals. In a genre where literally every song has the same beat, his music struggles to distinguish him from his peers, his sound lost in a wash of inoffensive pastels and vague tropical motifs. Even his overt attempts to add his own spin to classic sounds provide mixed results. Album opener “Medallo City” stands out lyrically for the slang local to Envigado, his neighborhood in Medellín, and recruits local rapper Teo Grajales. But the hip-hop beat’s attempt to work in some salsa rhythms get lost in the sauce, any unique character Grajales might have brought seems to have been buffed out by the time it made it onto the record.

To his credit, Maluma acknowledges his debts to Puerto Rican forebears—upon whose work Colombia’s entire reggaetón scene is built—a welcome nod to the sonic ancestors that we’ve seen recently from the likes of Bad Bunny and even Romeo Santos. Recorded mostly during the COVID-imposed lockdown with his longtime producer collaborators and co-writers The Rude Boyz (Kevin ADG and Chan “El Genio”), Papi Juancho features guest appearances from OGs Jory Boy, Ñejo y Dálmata, Ñengo Flow, Randy, and Yomo, but the production is so tepid you might not even notice.

The album’s highlight “ADMV” is also its most familiar, released months earlier as a single. An acoustic ballad to growing old with the love of your life (“Amor de mi vida”), its earnestness overcomes the slight hint of cheese. It’s one of the few moments on Papi Juancho that feels honest and genuine. But for the most part, Papi Juancho is neither exceptionally good or remarkably awful. Despite its considerable bloat, none of its 22 tracks demand a skip, even if few moments particularly stand out. It emits a vibe similar to an algorithmically programmed Spotify station, an amalgamation of every popular reggaetón beat that sounds like everything and nothing all at once.
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About Wanni Arachchige Udara Madusanka Perera

Hey, I'm Perera! I will try to give you technology reviews(mobile,gadgets,smart watch & other technology things), Automobiles, News and entertainment for built up your knowledge.
Maluma - Papi Juancho Music Album Reviews Maluma - Papi Juancho Music Album Reviews Reviewed by Wanni Arachchige Udara Madusanka Perera on September 05, 2020 Rating: 5

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