Un Verano Sin Ti

煽情的なアンセムから孤独なバラードまで、ジャンル、世代、言語さえも超えて、普遍的な喜びや悲しみそして情熱を辿るランドマークを作り出す、プエルトリコのスーパースター・ラッパー／シンガー＝バッド・バニーのアルバム『Un Verano Sin Ti』。今作品は、レゲトン～クンビアといったラテン音楽に、アフロビーツやボッサ、インディーポップを織り交ぜ展開する4枚目のスタジオ・アルバム。

Every summer, music slides back into life like a long-forgotten friend. The years warmer months have a tendency to give the brightest memories their own musical accompaniments, and with global trendsetters all pushing for "song of the summer," landing a warm-weather masterpiece requires not just an understanding of hit-making, but the magic of the season itself. This is the music that defines years -- and in the six preceding this albums release, Bad Bunny has built his empire. Its only fitting, then, that the Puerto Rican superstar should define the summer in his own terms. His fourth studio album, Un Verano Sin Ti, is a page-to-stage adaptation of the season, a representation of the ephemeral feeling that makes the years middle months so revered. Across incendiary anthems and lone-man ballads he flits between a traditional ensemble -- from earnest party-starter ("Me Fui de Vacaciones") to smooth amante ("Agosto") -- channeling his own memories to grant each an emotional depth. Nights on the San Juan seafront and trips to La Parguera make for snapshots of PR highlife, while a spectrum of loves won and lost varies from the exhilarating optimism of "Ensename a Bailar" to the suffocating lonerism of "Un Coco." Everything here moves with a fundamental easiness, the transience of the season itself written in fleeting romances and night-time drifts along the coast. At the core of the project is the reggaeton that has defined the musicians 2020s output: Tony Dize makes for a bold new sparring partner on the impassioned "La Corriente," JhayCo and Rauw Alejandro help lift the party off on "Tarot" and "Party," and solo tracks “Efecto” and “Ojitos Lindos” pay tribute to small-room sensuality. A strong opening run of hits includes the clockwork-like “Me Porto Bonito,” a twisting set of rhythms accompanied by Plan B hit-maker Chencho Corleone, and “Moscow Mule,” a spiritual successor to 2020’s “Dakiti” dressed in untarnished joy and sexed-up adrenaline. Yet with the projects expansive 23-track set list, Bad Bunny can flesh out a wider range of ritmos: a taste of Afrobeats on the Lakizo-sampling “Ensename a Bailar," some flecks of bossa on the paranoid "Yo No Soy Celoso,” and an impassioned leap into Dominican merengue on “Despues de la Playa.” The genre-flipping collages of El Ultimo Tour make a triumphant return, but this time theyre given space to bloom: dembow-trap hybrid "Titi Me Pregunto" arcs from hedonistic machismo to downcast introspection, "El Apagon" weaves a sparse PR tribute into a frenzied floor-filler, and rare four-plus-minute runtimes are afforded to the dreamboat-pop of "Otro Atardecer" and the poignant "Andrea." "Dos Mil 16," a scale-model of the rappers Latin trap roots, revives his oldest producer tag for a portal into a simpler time. Un Verano is not only a seasonal statement piece but a testament to Bad Bunnys singular songwriting -- across genres, generations, and even languages, he produces landmarks that trace universal joys, sorrows, and passions. As the final amber tones of "Callaita" fade beyond the horizon and the wash of the waves begins to cease, its hard not to be reminded of just how far this cantante has come. ~ David Crone

ストリーミング再生回数を基準にするならば、この夏に世界でもっとも聴かれたアーティストこそプエルトリコ出身の大スター、バッド・バニーだ。この4作目はレゲトンを基調にメレンゲ、クンビア、マンボなどカリブの多様な音楽を取り込んで広くスペイン語圏にアピールしつつ、ボンバからEDMに転調する"El Apagon"、ハードなラテン・トラップ"Dos Mil 16"、ボッサ調やレゲエなどで変化をつけて全23曲を一気に聴かせる。ヴァラエティーは豊かで開放感があるが、どこかメランコリックなフィーリングが通底しており、時折切なげに聴こえる歌唱も〈君のいない夏〉という表題にぴったり。俳優業にも進出している彼は2024年公開のマーベル映画で主演を務めるとの報もあり、さらなる世界的人気を獲得するだろう。
bounce (C)池谷瑛子