Bad Bunny has officially kicked off the summer season…
The 28-year-old Puerto Rican superstar has finally unveiled Un Verano Sin Ti, his long-awaited new studio album.
Released via Rimas Entertainment, Bad Bunny’s latest album navigates through summers in Puerto Rico with crashing ocean waves, breezy palm trees, and seagulls calling, interlaced in nearly all 23 tracks.
Seemingly crafted at the beach in part with hitmakers Tainy and MAG, Bad Bunny describes this set as “special” and “emotional,” because it “it reflects all of my summers growing up,” he said on The View.
Beyond its ode to summers in Puerto Rico, Un Verano Sin Ti unites edgy EDM beats, hard-hitting perreos, and tons of Caribbean flavors: bomba, merengue, afrobeat, reggae, dembow.
It’s home to lyrics about love, heartbreak, empowerment, and human rights — as heard in the Buscabulla-assisted “Andrea,” which according to the duo, “paints a portrait of a present-day young Puerto Rican woman and expresses her struggles without being condescending or preachy but complex and nuanced.”
Un Verano Sin Ti was released with focus single “Moscow Mule,” a refreshing reggaeton track that perfectly sets the tone for the rest of the album.
The Puerto Rican reggaeton duo, composed of Joel Muñoz and Randy Ortiz, is back on Billboard‘s Top Latin Albums chart as Viva El Perreo, their fifth studio album, debuts at No. 5 on the August 22-dated survey.
It marks Jowell & Randy’s return to the Top 10 on the chart since 2013 when Sobredosis debuted and peaked at No. 10.
“Somehow we feel that our effort is recognized,” Jowell tells Billboard. “It is definitely a great achievement for us at this stage of our career. It’s what we aspire to as artists every time we release new music. We are proud.”
Viva El Perreo starts at No. 5 with 7,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending August 13, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data, most of which stemmed from streaming activity.
The album’s songs logged 10 million U.S. on-demand streams in the tracking week, a career-high weekly total for the duo.
The Top Latin Albums chart ranks the most popular Latin albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).
Viva El Perreo was released August 8 via Rimas Entertainment and produced by DJ Orma, SubeloNeo, DJ Blass and Bad Bunny.
“The production of this album was somewhat atypical due to the pandemic,” Randy adds. “Most of the ideas were handled by Bad Bunny and we managed to exchange and approve our ideas from home using technology. The process of recording our voices took place under strict security measures, quartering us for several weeks in a studio. Once the voices were recorded, they were distributed via the internet to the producers who each took charge from their respective studios to finalize the mixes and give the last details to this musical project.”
Viva El Perreo is a follow up to La Alcaldía del Perreo: The Album, Jowell & Randy’s last entry on Top Latin Albums in 2016, which debuted and peaked at No. 23.
The new 14-track effort features collaborations with Don Omar, J Balvin, Miky Woodz, De La Ghetto, Barbie Rican and Kiko El Crazy.
“We enjoyed working with Don Omar the most,” Jowell continues. “It was a personal and professional goal that we had as a group,” “We have been fans of his music since his origins and we learned a lot from him while we shared in the recording studio.”
Viva El Perreo was preceded by one song on Hot Latin Songs, which blends airplay, digital sales and streaming data: “Anaranjado,” with J Balvin, peaked at No. 31 on the current chart.
“We have developed a chemistry with J Balvin that we don’t have with anyone else in the genre,” Randy adds. “Our friendship for years and the trust we have in each other allowed us to work freely and feel comfortable when composing together.”
Viva El Perreo concurrently debuts at No. 5 on Latin Rhythm Albums, the duo’s fifth consecutive top 10 there.
Released via Rimas Entertainment, Bad Bunny’s latest album navigates through summers in Puerto Rico with crashing ocean waves, breezy palm trees, and seagulls calling, interlaced in nearly all 23 tracks.