Ricky Martin: Sound Loaded : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Ricky Martin might be a goofball, but he's no fool. He doesn't need to make that "serious" move that so many misguided summer superstars believe they have in them. All he has to do is keep the party going, and that's exactly what Sound Loaded, the follow-up to last year's sizzlingly successful Ricky Martin, does. The single "She Bangs" shakes its bonbon so strenuously, fans will forget that the summer of 2000 went by without a hot-blooded devil woman vamping poor Ricky all over the airwaves. The relentlessly likable and danceable Sound Loaded plunges listeners once again into Ricky's hothouse world, with its lush evocations of exotic climes ("St. Tropez"), Spanglish salsa-club blowouts (the irresistible "Amor") and voodoo hussies (oh, pick one -- "Jezebel"). The singing sounds a little tired, but the monstrously effective production is firmly in place, with arena-size swells swamping the ballads ("Come to Me" eventually drowns) and Latinate curlicues (like the arabesque-ing guitar that redeems "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely") peeping from the corners. The best number is also the most bizarre -- "Loaded" is Cuisinart schlock pop, whirring, skronking jump horns, the requisite slamming "do your jiggy, mama, till the break o' dawn" chorus and a bridge that the Monkees inexplicably overlooked. Ricky is smart to recognize the ephemeral joys of his business, and he offers himself up unapologetically as a temporary "suavecito" stud muffin, most directly on "One Night Man." And that's the good news -- it means there might be enough Ricky to go around.