Returning for album number two…
[Video]
[5.83]
Iris Xie: Bad Bunny is a foghorn at full blast to match those seagulls in the track. Yeah, that’s the only thing to note here.
[2]
Joshua Minsoo Kim: Something poignant about hearing wheezy synths and moments of relative solitude punctuated by Bad Bunny’s obnoxious yelping. A song for sad, drunk bros.
[6]
Jonathan Bogart: I don’t think I recognized until this moment just how much Bad Bunny is an updated Drake for a more tropical climate: the sensitive-mook affect, the nasal croon, the lyrical focus on women and their emotional life all map across genre and region. If I like Benito more than Aubrey, it’s maybe because I more instinctively grasp his alignment with the proletariat: reggaetón is the great leveler. “Callaíta” is a step further down the path that X100PRE traced, an impressionist portrait of a young woman caught up in a reckless pleasure-seeking whirlwind that hints at depression and possible abuse: the lyrics frame her as heroic, but his delivery is melancholic, and his repeated reference to her as quiet but sexually daring is both a celebration that introverts can rally behind and a paternalistic (even Drakean) interrogation of who hurt her. Tainy, the reggaetón producer’s reggaetón producer, responds with a late-night drink-nursing riddim, all spacey reflection and stale breezes.
[8]
Jonathan Bradley: Bad Bunny is in ballad mode here, and even while he moans like he’s urging a party into life, it’s quite a restrained ballad mode; the ocean-blue synths spill around him while a gently pulsing bass laps around the edges. It gives an impression of insularity, of intimacy, of his abrasive wobble of a croon turning itself inward. He’s been more impressive when less modest, but that doesn’t make “Callaíta” any less satisfying.
[6]
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Tainy gets to do a few fun things with this beat, all beautiful and glassy and swiftly brushed away by the overwhelming Bad Bunny-ness of it all. He’s as loud and single-minded as always, enveloping the track without adding much to it.
[5]
Julian Axelrod: How much longer can I stan Bad Bunny while only understanding 20 per cent of what he says? I tried parsing the Genius translation for “Callaíta” (the sole comment: “Not even close to the original lyrics”) but it didn’t tell me anything I couldn’t already glean: misbegotten lust, lost youth, beach drinking, etc. That’s not a testament to my rudimentary Spanish, it’s a testament to the expressiveness of Bad Bunny’s incredible voice. Tainy’s shimmering mirage of a beat guarantees a summer smash, even without the chirping seagulls up top. But no one but Bad Bunny could imbue it with such nuance, yearning and passion. He sounds like the loneliest guy at the pool party, every shiver in his voice suggesting the good times aren’t meant to last. But there’s genuine warmth and empathy in the way he sings about this lost girl, something that distances him from a certain Canadian collaborator. Even when he’s reeling off a string of “yeah yeah yeah”s, he’s always speaking from the heart.
[8]