Returning to his home base of Latin music flavors after spending some time on the streets of hip-hop,
Daddy Yankee's
Mundial is a exciting mix of new and old plus regional and global. Concerning the first, the album features the familiar reggaeton rhythms that set the superstar's career in motion, but it also features the futuristic sounds of Auto-Tune and electro. The best example is the highlight
"Vida en la Noche," which is somewhere between a
Pitbull and a
Gary Numan track, but you don't need to look any further than the album's leadoff single,
"Descontrol," to feel the power
Yankee wields when mixing yesterday (the rhythm) and today (the rest). As far as the regional and global,
Mundial draws its lyrical inspiration from
Daddy Yankee's travels around the world and brings it all home with the music being primarily home-grown with dance and R&B showing up as slight influences. In that way,
Mundial is the
Daddy Yankee album longtime fans hoped for as well as being a fine introduction to reggaeton's first global superstar. ~ David Jeffries
