Review: Colores, J Balvin’s new release

Last week J Balvin finally released his long-awaited album Colores, in which he dedicates a song to each color. The album is made up of 10 songs and the titles are different colors. It is his sixth studio album and is entirely produced by Sky Rompiendo, with whom J Balvin has already collaborated on multiple occasions. Each song will feature a video clip produced by Colin Tilley. These are our first impressions of Colores.

The launch

The release date of the entire album was initially March 20. However, a few days before, J Balvin seemed to hesitate on his social networks about whether to release this album in times of crisis and pandemic. He insistently asked his fans through Twitter and Instagram if the release date should continue for that day. This made a campaign a little strange of expectation because it questioned the release of the album while trying to generate more intrigue regarding the album (we already knew what it was about: colors). In the end, the reggaeton singer from Medellín ended up releasing the album a day before the initial release date: March 19 in the afternoon.

The art of the album

The album art is upbeat and brilliant. Very much in the style of Vibras, Colores is made up of bright colors and exaggerated illustrations that give an impression of being a pop and happy album, which it is. Perhaps in Vibras, this was more novel when it came to reggaeton.

In this case, however, there does not seem to be a new proposal but rather an album very similar to the previous one in its art. It's even a little cheesy and gooey. He also had the bad luck that this optimism and joy go a bit against the current global environment. It also contrasts with the darkness of his colleague Bad Bunny's album, released at the end of February, which, perhaps by chance, goes very well with the overall mood.

The songs

We already knew three singles of Colores, the release of which had already taken place before the album was released in its entirety: Morado, Blanco and Rojo. These are, in the opinion of the writer, the three best songs on the album, so the rest are a bit disappointing, as there is no song that is an undiscovered gem: we have already seen the best of the album.

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Rojo already had a video in which the protagonist, J Balvin, dies in a tragic accident and even after his death, he watches over his girlfriend until he gives her approval to continue with her life. Although Balvin pretends to be fun with this video (he pranks on his girlfriend's new suitors), he is with the clip reinforcing ways of loving and relating that reggaeton is already questioning. It is flat and thoughtless.

The rest of the songs are rather forgettable and maybe a couple will start playing at parties (parties that at the moment will not happen because of the pandemic) and in bars. All, except perhaps for Negro, respond to a bleached and smoothed reggaeton that is closer to pop than to traditional reggaeton and reminds other artists that in their effort to always be up-to-date they make genre mixes that do not go as well, as Juanes.

Finally, the colored theme is purely a matter of marketing. Although it is interesting as an advertising strategy, none of the songs have to do with their colors, there are almost no references to it in the lyrics of the songs and it seems all free and arbitrary. A real shame for the one that made us dance with Vibras.