Ricky Martin returns to his native tongue with Las Almas del Silencio ("The Souls of Silence"), due from Sony's Spanish-language division on May 20th. It will be his first Spanish release since 1998's Vuelve.

Martin's last new record was 2000's Sound Loaded, a lukewarm success compared to his 1999 self-titled English-language debut. Still, since days fronting Menudo in the Eighties, Martin has always been a huge success internationally -- he released the Spanish greatest-hits collection Historia in 2001 -- and on Silencio he's seeking to recreate that formula. Venezuelan songwriter Franco de Vita, who wrote Veulve's title-track, wrote Martin's newest lead single, "Tal Vez" ("Perhaps").

AUGUSTIN SEDGEWICK
(April 7, 2003)