Rauw Alejandro takes reggaeton to a new pop galaxy on his new album ‘Saturno’

Rauw Alejandro, restless star In search of a dimension that isn’t just measured numerically (“we’re influential in music”, proclaiming it on the superviral single ‘Punto 40’), she decided bring reggaeton to a new pop galaxy. With the opening of ‘Saturno’, the title of his third studio album, Taking a bold and determined step into a Puerto Rican universe it is true that this has been pointed out as the next conquest of the (musical) space in recent years. In fact, it’s not only confirmed by super hits from the city that add club sounds and electronic dance music.

If there’s a reggaeton that sounds with strong bass, rumbles the ground, and is transported to the heat of the earth, it’s a chameleon. Rauw Alejandro envisioned a carburetor in the loudspeakers of flying cars and one going to an obscure place in the sky.. But it does so by respecting (and from) the origin of a genre born of experimentation: in this sense, it is worth noting the ‘control’ given by DJ Playero, who was the founding and key figure in the popularization of reggaeton. tracks from the album.

steps to new places

The 29-year-old Puerto Rican singer has already gotten into the starting trap (two ‘mixtapes’ prove it) and is taking steps from the ‘orthodoxy’ of reggaeton to new places (you can check the evolution album by album), from ‘Aphrodisiac’ to ‘Vice Versa’ and ‘Saturn’ to date).

Rauw Alejandro’s self-produced album—”80%,” he says—is full of synthesizers, the movie-like sounds of lasers, video games of the eighties. teleported to the future -‘Tell me who???’ The solver looks like an heir. A respectful future that is a fusion of genres, from prominent reggaeton to afrobeat, miami bass, new wave, dancehall… It spans 18 tracks on the album. And yes, a future that is softer, less abrupt, and with little room for fiery perreo, with the successful exceptions of ‘Dejau’.

Rauw Alejandro bases his work on exploiting the romance, mischief and sensuality that his music represents.. catalan couple RosaliaIn ‘Corazón despeinado’ a Puerto Rican “girl, what do you say?” he begins, a clear reference to ‘Saoko’ by Sant Esteve Sesrovires to imagine? and presents himself as a dopey, good-natured lover. But ‘Saturno’ travels in different moods, also showing that he is vulnerable in ‘Far From Heaven’, evident in ‘Quérico chxxgamos’ or defiantly paired with Arcángel in ‘Cazadores’. In short, he uses the themes of the genre he developed and will continue to develop his music, but with a new and fascinating harmony in a different universe because Rauw Alejandro asserts what his ambition demands of him: to be a true pop artist. Ignasi Fortuny

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