As they launch their joint world tour…
[Video]
[5.57]
Anaïs Escobar Mathers: What happens when you grow up in a Cuban household in a very white suburb? You listen to very different music at home than you do with your friends. This varied musical education is why I can tell you with certainty how exciting it is to hear two powerhouses like Trevi and Guzmán releasing music together, especially when that music is essentially the Latinx pop version of Brandy and Monica’s “The Boy is Mine” and the Dixie Chicks’ “Goodbye Earl” having a baby. Musically, it’s the best kind of dance pop song: you want to move and sing along at the same time.
[9]
Thomas Inskeep: Gloria Trevi and Alejandra Guzmán are legends in Mexican pop music. They’re also, and I used this word in a complimentary fashion, as cougar-y as cougars get. So it’s befitting that, to mark their joint “VERSUS” tour, they’ve cut this banger about men doing their women wrong. Musically this harkens back to the turbo-pop of the start of this decade, and Trevi and Guzmán take to it as well as Cher did “Believe.” This is a triumphant, women-on-top song, and it works in spades.
[8]
Peter Ryan: The VERSUS Tour doesn’t need new collaborative material to sell out arenas, so in less self-aware hands this would be an unnecessary risk — the temptation to try to sound current, the chance that it could read as perfunctory, that the two icons might have awkward chemistry on-record. The sonic safe-ness is no surprise then, but the song itself, which casts Trevi and Guzmán as adversaries-turned-accomplices against a common scoundrel, cannily plays off of the professional rivalry rumors that underpin the tour. Far from competitive, it’s a straightforward dialogue built on mutual respect, each pushing the other to wring even more drama out of every successive line. Subtlety, restraint — this song has no use for them; the end result is a lot more fun than a one-off tour single has any right being. (Only, there’s more where it came from).
[7]
Alfred Soto: Gloria Trevi belts the hell out of this lustrous anthem, out-noising even the four-on-the-floor drum part, out-noising even her duet partner.
[6]
Jonathan Bradley: Trevi and Guzmán are determined their duet should stir even the most doleful spirits, and they succeed through force. Full-throated vocal exhortations and a committedly unexciting four-four thump do the work of an army. It conjures the vague goodwill of a musical theme for an international sporting event: everyone tries hard, everyone wins, no one needs to care.
[4]
Will Rivitz: Without meaning to generalize too much, the reason country typically doesn’t work with adrenalin-rushing EDM is because of a disconnect in style. The baring of hearts that characterizes some of the best work in the genre — whether it be in the service of misery, tenderness, or joy — gets drowned out by the impenetrable euphoria of a stadium-filling synth lead. In a similar vein, the telenovela desperation of “Cuando Un Hombre Te Enamora,” an overblown cry of anguish which might work over more fitting instrumentation, is shattered by what sounds like a Basshunter reject from 2008. The song might work over less pumping music, but it’s rendered impotent by what’s given here.
[4]
Stephen Eisermann: With the amount of artists who shared messages on their social media accounts about this duet, I expected a masterpiece. Two talented singers on an uber hyped duet? Count me in! What I just listened to, though… yikes. What a shame that such beautiful voices are trapped behind such a weird production. And, my God, is that subliminal messaging in this song? Oh, no, it’s a lame and off-putting attempt at incorporating an “evil” sounding man saying weird things he’s robbed these lovely ladies of. Not enough can be said of how atrocious the production on the track is, from the cheap Yamaha stock beats (80s sliding guitar sounds terrible coming from a keyboard) to the random incorporation of a generic dance track on the chorus — it’s jarring and the juxtaposition doesn’t do anything for the melody or even the significance of the lyrics. I can deal with dated production if the worst thing about it is that it feels tired, but the background noise (I refuse to call that music) feels careless, cheap, and overcooked. This song is an offense to both of their talents, and Gloria and Alejandra’s choice to release it is an offense to their fans.
[1]