Just a love bite.
[Video][Website]
[6.14]
Rebecca A. Gowns: As I listen and relisten, all I can think is that there’s something missing. What is it? Does it need more percussion? Horns? More voices in the chorus? More surf guitar? More treble? Perhaps. I search for “la mordidita” and the second result reads “la mordidita zumba” — and at last, I have found the missing ingredient. In the top video of a list of hundreds, a lithe man in a baseball cap leads a room of blonde women in ponytails and matching black leggings to hip-shaking dance aerobics. This is it: the ultimate zumba number.
[7]
Will Adams: The riff on the “Calabria” riff and breakneck tempo work their hardest, but not much else does.
[5]
Brad Shoup: Everything on this Calabria two-thousand-and-late is too sleek. Martin’s vocal prizes speed over feel, the video-game melodic figure was included on a dare. And he’s had this text before.
[5]
Ramzi Awn: Perfectly suitable dance pop. Martin’s lower register is a welcome treat, and his notorious commitment to vocals is intact.
[6]
Alfred Soto: I wouldn’t have minded a bite from Ricky Martin in 2000 — a small one. That’s when the Sean Paul-isms of those horns would have sounded contemporary.
[5]
Thomas Inskeep: Crazy-high BPMs, a mix of salsa, reggaeton, and EDM (with a dash of cumbia for good measure), and a ridiculously sexy vocal from Ricky Martin (plus a throwaway bridge from co-producer and co-writer Yotuel): this makes me wanna dance with somebody and feel the heat with somebody.
[9]
Anthony Easton: Martin’s warm, accessible voice is an underrated instrument, often used badly. I would call this a comeback, but that would center my pop listening to America, and that would be wrong (also, the Franco-Cuban Yotuel, could be the worst of world music, but he manages to ingratiate himself quite well.)
[6]