Backup singer for Shakira and Juanes takes the lead mic…
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[6.33]
Brad Shoup: Latin America had thriving New Wave and rock scenes in the ’80s, too. “La Ecuación” is pitched between the two, with a playful bassline and a vocal performance to match. She’s so brash in the bridge, it’s practically K-pop.
[6]
Patrick St. Michel: A pleasant bop-along… until that breakdown, which is a nice shake-ya-up interruption, enough to give this one extra point.
[6]
Alfred Soto: I wish the writers had toughened the conceit. “I don’t care what others say,” she snaps, and well, why should she? It’s math, according to her. You wouldn’t say 2+2 = 5 unless you were Ted Cruz explaining stuff to midterm election voters. An extra point for the tempo change.
[5]
Jonathan Bogart: I had to start this one over about five times because the various streams on my mobile devices kept crapping out on me (I guess I need to set my new router up differently), with the result that I became intimately familiar with the first half of the song… so that when I finally got the full song and the cheerleader chant came in during the back half it was even more of a pleasant surprise. The cheerful venom of the verses is so great that the lovelorn chorus feels oddly deflating, but that closing patter helps to paper over the joins.
[8]
Edward Okulicz: I’m utterly entranced by the pre-chorus here, coiled like a spring that launches the chorus. Add that delightful breakdown and the frisky beat and you’ve got something pitched halfway between Cyndi and Gwen. I pity everyone trying to hear this in the northern hemisphere where it isn’t spring right now.
[8]
Thomas Inskeep: Perky Latin pop like Shakira made pre-English language stardom. Entirely entertaining, and I won’t remember it five minutes from now.
[5]