Salsa Music Album: Victor Manuelle “Me Llamare Tuyo” Review

In his latest Salsa music album “Me Llamare Tuyo” Victor Manuelle’s repeats the formula used in his previous album “Busco un Pueblo“.

This means quality “Salsa Romantica” song lyrics, arrangements very similar to Victor Manuelle’s past music, and a couple of alternative Salsa songs. I’ll elaborate on this below.

“Me Llamare Tuyo” is the 15th Salsa music album released by the Puerto Rican “Salsa Romantica” idol, who is already celebrating 20 years of a very successful Salsa music career. The album’s 1st single, “Me Llamare Tuyo” became Victor Manuelle’s 22nd #1 song in Billboard’s Tropical Airplay chart.

One remarkable thing about the album is the opportunity Victor Manuelle provides for new talent. The album includes a duet with promising newcomer Ken-Y and has young urban composers like Gocho, Wise and Oscarito. This is something Victor Manuelle has been working on, as he featured some of these young artists in his recent concerts “Casi 20” in Puerto Rico.

“Me Llamare Tuyo” was produced by Victor Manuelle and released in June 2013 under the Sony Latin label.

What I Liked About “Me Llamare Tuyo”

• Song Lyric Quality – the 1st thing that impressed me about “Me Llamare Tuyo” is the quality of the song lyrics. Most of the songs are as expected “Salsa Romantica”, but the quality of the lyrics is remarkable. The title song, “Me Llamare Tuyo” is as good as an example as any. Very original, very romantic, very engaging.

• Good Singing – Victor Manuelle keeps delivering good “soneos” and engaging passion into his songs.
• My Favorite Songs – besides the title song “Me Llamare Tuyo”, I also enjoyed “No Soy de Piedra”, “No Vuelvo” (featuring Ken-Y), and “Ando Por las Nubes”, the 2nd single of the album. Regarding Ken-Y I have to say that thought he has a nice voice, but also thought he was a “she”. By the voice I would’ve sworn that it was a woman singing. Ooops, my bad!

Suggestions to Victor Manuelle on “Me Llamare Tuyo”

• More of the same – my main pet peeve with “Me Llamare Tuyo” is that it’s more of the same from his previous album “Busco un Pueblo”. It’s plenty of “Salsa Romantica” with one kind of electro dance Salsa. The song “Mi Salsa le Gusto” has the same type of rhythm as “Ella Lo Que Quiere es Salsa” from his previous album. I guess Victor Manuelle figured that if this latter song became a hit, so can this new one. It may be true, but I wasn’t very impressed with it.
• Lack of Variety – I look for variety in an album to keep me engaged. The songs here are good, but there is not big change of pace besides the “Mi Salsa le Gusto”. There are no “boleros”, no “Vallenatos” and the collaborations with Gocho and Ken-Y fell short of providing enough variety to the album.

My Recommendation of “Me Llamare Tuyo”

I’m going to give you a conditional recommendation here. If you liked Victor Manuelle’s previous “Busco Un Pueblo”, then you will like “Me Llamare Tuyo”. Victor Manuelle is a “Salsa Romantica” idol, having visited the #1 position in the Billboard charts as much as Marc Anthony has, for the most in the Tropical music category. So the “Salsa Romantica” and “pop Salsa” formula has been a hit for Victor Manuelle.

I give “Me Llamare Tuyo” a B-, mostly because the lack of variety. After 20 years as a Salsa music star, I expect a bit more of an artist. I don’t expect you to do the same old – same old thing over again just because it sells. Yes, there are 4 or 5 songs that are interesting enough for me to keep it in my iPod, but it won’t last long there.

Victor Manuelle has proven he has the talent to branch out from this “Salsa Romantica” comfort zone. I thought he was going in that direction, when in previous albums he started adding “boleros” and some mixes with “Vallenato” with Colombian guest Jorge Celedon.

Although this album was a step back from that diversification trend, I think Victor Manuelle fans will be pleased with the quality of the songs and music in the album.