Martin Loses His Sheen: Ricky Martin's New Album Lacks Vida

As hard as it is to say it, Ricky Martin's sex appeal is limited and has gotten old. The butt-shaking antics and tight leather attire of the supposed king of Latin dance-pop just don't do it for me anymore. Which would be okay if his songs still had the energy that jump-started his popularity. But the quality of Martin's newest endeavors, not that it's ever been that high, just hasn't maintained the status for constant cultural innovation that has made Latin pop so interesting. As an artist, Martin's development has been stunted by the popular clamor for old crowd-pleasers. In striking a balance between selling records and good music, Martin has inevitably put too much weight on the former.

Unfortunately, on the 15 tracks of his new album Sound Loaded, Martin achieves little in the way of validating himself as anything beyond vocal accompaniment for snazzy Latin dance rhythms. Countless tracks of smooth-wannabe-Backstreet Boys/'NSync fall short of any distinctive melody or rhythm that marks classics of the same genre. Perhaps it's a case of too many people wanting in on a piece of the Martin action: a quick glance at the credits shows each song to have been engineered by around 10 people, which may have contributed to the generic quality of the songs. The lyrics seem forced, with discordant rhymes that are unnaturally matched with background instrumentals.

The first single off the album, "She Bangs," features upbeat pop rhythms. Martin's vocals appear and reappear at intervals without much consequence. While in Martin's previous hit "Livin' La Vida Loca" the energy and verve present was able to compensate for so-so vocals, this was clearly not the case in either version of "She Bangs." Both the backing music and vocals just seem like mediocre rehashes of past successes.

However, "Loaded" does manage to bring back some of the hip-swinging rhythms and energy that marked Martin's previous hits. Although his vocals were once again mostly obscured by the pounding beat, the amazingly fast, tight rhythms provide "Loaded" (and its Spanish counterpart, "Dame Ms") with an unmatched verve and enthusiasm that distinguished the songs from the rest of a generally repetitive album. I also appreciated Martin's departure from his usual style in "Jezabel." Syncopated string instrumentals at the beginning lend a jazzy swing feel to the track that unfortunately fizzles away as the track progresses and Martin's inadequate vocals take over.

As dance music, a few of Martin's rhythms still have an edge, but one that has become increasingly dull as time progresses and mindless repetition ensues. About a third of Sound Loaded is just Spanish versions of other tracks on the album and a large other half are mind-numbing soporific pop numbers that, without any distinctive characteristics, are useless even as dance tunes. Sound Loaded is loaded with too much repetitive hype and not enough music. And attempts at "sexy" photos in liner notes do not a good album make. C