Merengue: Elvis Crespo, Zona D'Tambore, Ilegales, Monchy y Alexandra, Juan Luis Guerra

Yes, Elvis Crespo is back. He's still a master of merengue, and still looks like that guy from 5ive. Only now he's adopted the guys of Zona D'Tambore, a boysband-ish tropical rap collective. I know that sounds awful, but believe me, their song is great. Crespo's characteristical voice stands out wonderfully against the (bland) ZDT vocals. "La Foto Se Me Borró" is a slow merengue with a contemporary romantic theme: he's lost the picture of some girl on his mobile. The horror! I'm surprised about the trivialities youth are concerned with these days ;) No, serious, this song will be a continent-wide hit very soon, and Crespo will sell lots of copies of his upcoming album Regresó El Jefe!


Next, we dive into even more commercial music: Ilegales is a merenhouse combo from the Dominican Republic, not to be confused with the legendary Spanish rock band of the same name. (Side note: merenhouse is to merengue like Crazy Frog is to the Beverly Hills Cop theme). Ilegales teamed up with the bachata stars of the moment, Monchy y Alexandra, on "La Otra". The result is an eclectic mix of rhythms and instruments one can only classify as 'latin pop fusion'. The song has grown on me: the chaos is in some way very latino, and Alexandra has totally convinced me that she will not be la otra, the other girl.


And as promised in the previous merengue post: here's another track off THE tropical album of 2007, La Llave De Mi Corazón by Juan Luís Guerra. In our review we mentioned "Como Yo" as one of the groovy dance tracks on the album, but maybe we should say the grooviest dance track. Everything about this song is irresistible: the quiet start, the hesitating rhythm change, and most of all the magnificent chorus. I bet you'll be singing "Te quiero como yo" for the rest of the day!

Elvis Crespo ft. Zona D'Tambore - La Foto Se Me Borró mp3 buy@Amazon
Ilegales ft. Monchy y Alexandra - La Otra mp3 buy@iTunes buy@Amazon
Juan Luis Guerra - Como Yo mp3 buy@iTunes buy@Amazon

Ilegales ft. Monchy y Alexandra - La Otra