Claire with the buried lead…
[Video][Website]
[4.17]
Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa: You can sum up the entirety of Juanes’ catalog as rock versions of traditional Colombian musical ideas; it’s pretty much his thing, but recent Juanes hasn’t sounded very engaging, or even fun, in a while. “Hermosa Ingrata” doesn’t even have the time or the energy for a guitar solo (!) and that drumbeat takes a lot from the cumbia cadence. Plus, those lyrics again? I know it’s kind of a Colombian tradition to write songs about deceptive women, but come on, he’s done way too many of those.
[5]
Edward Okulicz: Great prowling bassline, not-so-great whingey song on top of it.
[4]
Alfred Soto: Typical midtempo reggaeton twaddle about beautiful ingrates and the stupid men who write songs about them.
[4]
Thomas Inskeep: A light cumbia with some inspired touches like wah-wah guitar licks works for me.
[6]
Iain Mew: The wah-wah is a bit to get over, but I thought at first that “Hermosa Ingrata” at least has a decent swinging groove going for it. They can’t even manage to keep that up, though, opting for additions like the half-spoken bit which break up its progress but are too hesitant for that to be more than a disappointment.
[3]
Claire Biddles: I am 100% on board for Juanes’ visual album about a time-travelling Colombian astronaut looking for love (!), but maybe I’ll watch it with the sound down if this is anything to go by.
[3]