Evaluate: Elsten Torres’ Vice Versa album
I simply streamed Elston Torres’ new bilingual album Vice Versa, and I LOVE IT. It’s so comfortable!
I’ve typically referred to the Cuban-born, Miami-based Torres because the “King of Love Songs” due to his lovely songs “Nearer Tonight” and “A Good World” have been in my playlist since, nicely, earlier than I had playlists. This album retains the love vibe however turns it into comfortable, anthemic music that may blow you away.
Vice Versa is Elsten Torres’ thirteenth studio album, and it’s an uplifting mixture of musical influences and earnest, socially acutely aware messages. Launched this 12 months, the venture took form each earlier than and after the pandemic, with Elston mixing themes of resilience, inventive renewal, and residing with pleasure. It’s precisely what I would like on the finish of a tough day or week, and I believe it’s precisely what America and the world must counteract its ongoing political exhaustion.
The album options a mixture of ska, Motown, rock, rap, and Latin sounds, a lot of it crafted with longtime collaborators Emil Temeltas and Raul Ramirez and acclaimed producer JP Gasca, and options the Los ReggaeMonks. Torres’ lead single “Vive” encapsulates the spirit of Vice Versa – seize the current and embrace life’s alternatives with pleasure and goal.
Torres has pulled off the very tough feat of a feel-good but socially acutely aware album; seven songs celebrating music’s means to marry messages of unity and friendship with danceable grooves and heartfelt lyricism. There’s nothing like dancing and music to convey individuals collectively, and Torres realizes that regardless of our nationality, our nation, or our politics, all of us communicate music.
Vibrant with a contemporary edge, fusing classic rock and Motown-inspired horns with reggae rhythms and energetic choruses, the album is all earworms. It makes your physique transfer and your soul really feel good
This album – and Torres himself – are emotionally genuine. Songs like “Vive” concentrate on residing totally and never letting “the alternatives of life, love, well being, and happiness slip away.” The title, Vice Versa, serves as a name to motion and self-trust. Every thing in regards to the album says “Sure!”.
Vice Versa stands as a testomony to Elsten Torres’ steady progress as an artist, which has been appreciable given his two Grammy and a Latin Grammy nominations, two BMI songwriting awards, and 6 Billboard High Ten songs. The album’s celebration of pleasure, hope, and multicultural unity resonates strongly with me, and I think with audiences in lots of international locations. With its mixture of musical innovation and messages of connection and optimism, it strikes me spiritually in methods his earlier romantic songs didn’t (however they’re nonetheless as fantastic as they had been the primary day I heard them, and the ultimate tune on the album, “I’ll Shield You,” has his romantic voice in it).
I’ve been following Torres since 2015, and I believe Vice Versa is a profession milestone that brings collectively a long time of Torres’ expertise throughout Latin rock, rockabilly, and Cuban son genres — it’s one among Torres’ most heartfelt and impressive works to this point. The tracks have catchy, rootsy preparations, highly effective lyrics, and and blend genres in ways in which transcend language. However most of all, they’re comfortable! And you may be too if you play it.
Stream on Spotify and main platforms.
Patrick O’Heffernan
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