Puerto Rican rapper Myke Towers is undeniably a product of the underground, even on his most chart-friendly tasks. Since arriving in 2016 together with his debut, El Remaining del Principio, his star has risen on the power of his uncanny stream and cadence, sharp lyrics, and prolific work ethic on a collection of releases which have seen him honor the barrios that raised him whereas attracting listeners worldwide. After transferring seamlessly from rap en español to Latin pop, he had his greatest success but with the Latin Grammy-nominated 2021 album LYKE MIKE, which was impressed by old-school hip-hop from New York to Río Piedras. His newest mission, LA VIDA ES UNA, sees him make a managed transfer again to the mainstream, leaning extra broadly on melody alongside stream, whereas venturing into Afrobeats, reggae, and, after all, pop.
Towers likes making lengthy information. He has mentioned he whittled this album down from 50 tracks. Like its predecessor, LA VIDA ES UNA clocks in at 23. However whereas the size of LYKE MYKE allowed Towers to showcase his command of his craft on a back-to-basics LP with mixtape vitality, right here it makes for an LP that feels fractured, going from profitable dangers to sections that skew too near middle-of-the-road.
Probably the most attention-grabbing moments are probably the most stunning, thanks partly to the glowing signatures of his intensive manufacturing roster. These arrive in gestures each massive and small: a Spanish guitar riff on “Mi Droga”; the left flip to synth-pop and Eighties beatscapes on tracks like “Cama King,” with Argentine songwriter Chita, and “Additional Additional”; the wonderful push-and-pull of his tempo switches on “En Alta”; and his verse over the reggae beat of “Movement Jamaican.” What makes these dangers really feel earned is that even when Towers tries on a brand new type, his lyrics remind you the place he got here from, anchoring these tracks in his personal story. It makes return-to-form tracks like “Don & Tego,” his blistering collaboration with veteran reggaeton artist Arcángel, and “Lo Logré,” a wistful reflection on how far he’s come, really feel like trophies collected slightly than retreads of his biggest hits.
In contrast, numerous tracks really feel like lackluster makes an attempt at would-be hits pasted in from a much less bold mission. Whereas “Ulala” (with the now retired Daddy Yankee) and the sing-song “Lala” are every enjoyable in their very own proper, they don’t cohere with the album’s bolder experiments. The Ozuna collaboration “Conocerte” feels prefer it checks a field. It’s not that Towers’ pop-reggaeton impulse isn’t attention-grabbing (the one “Aguardiente” is a enjoyable summer time track that deliberately nods to Colombia’s rising maintain on the style), it’s that this course itself feels extra stale and safer than Towers’ daring imaginative and prescient would let on.
LA VIDA ES UNA is commonly nice; additionally it is typically merely wonderful, particularly since Towers is so filled with potential vitality and has already confirmed how powerfully he can command the barest of tracks. His dangers right here yield large returns; the remaining is window dressing.
