Acoustic Avenues: a Colombian Icon
In this weekly column, senior Emily Thomas provides her take on a new albums, concerts, and artists.
September 20, 2021
If you know me, you know that I adore J Balvin, so you can imagine my happiness when he dropped his highly anticipated album Jose last Friday. I was very excited for this album and I had reason to be because I love with it.
Not only is J Balvin an amazing singer, but he is a Colombian icon. The reason why I believe he has really changed the world is because when one thinks about Medellin, Colombia, their first thought is Pablo Escobar. It’s only natural that that happens but it hurts a lot for us Colombians. Balvin has shown Medellin in a whole new light that has transformed the way people see it. I really appreciate this from him.
On to the album now, I have a long list of favorites. “Billetes De 100” featuring Myke Towers, “La Venganza” featuring Jhay Cortez, “Vestido,” “Que Locura,” “Que Mas Pues,” featuring Maria Becerra, and “7 De Mayo,” are my favorites so far. I recognize that it’s a lot, but this album was beyond good. I couldn’t narrow it down to a top three.
I love the dynamic and the variety in this album. There were songs that were typical reggaeton that you can just dance and vibe to, and there were songs that were very emotionally packed like “7 De Mayo” and “Querido Rio” which is a song that Balvin wrote for his newborn son Rio.
One song that I didn’t find great but I appreciated the effort on it was “Poblado-Remix.” It had a bunch of features from KAROL G, Nicky Jam, Crissin, Natan & Shander, and Totoy El Frio. I appreciated this song because it isn’t easy to have so many people on one song so it was like the cherry on top of the album.
This album will go down in history as one of my favorites. Even though I was mostly excited, I was admittedly skeptical about it because I didn’t want to be disappointed. I’m so glad I was wrong and that I could enjoy this album so much. I highly recommend this album as it is one that anyone can enjoy whenever.
