Gran City Pop (CD - 2009)

Personnel: Paulina Rubio (vocals); Fernando Perdomo (guitar, bajo sexto, piano); Sebastián Schon (guitar, bajo sexto, keyboards, programming); Fernando Montesinos (guitar, bajo sexto, programming); Lyle Workman (guitar); Cachorro López (bajo sexto, programming); James Freebarin-Smith (cello); Lester Mendez (piano, keyboards, programming); Demian Nava (keyboards, programming); Juan Blas Caballero (keyboards).

Audio Mixers: Max Miglin; Boris Alarcon; Cesar Sogbe.

Recording information: Ananda Studios, Miami, FL; C-Rod Music Studios, Miami, FL; Cubejam, Miami, FL; Estudios Noisy House, Madrid, Spain; Midnight Blue; Mondomix, Buenos Aires, Argentina; The Real Studios, Miami, FL.

Arranger: Lester Mendez.

Mexican diva Paulina Rubio has always been adept at balancing dance-pop gloss, Beatlesque melodicism, and the rich musical tradition of the rancheras, bandas, and cumbias that informed her earliest listening experiences. On this 2009 release, a worthy follow-up to her excellent 2006 offering, she achieves the same balancing act, and the result is a set of compelling, modern-sounding songs with vibrant production and buttery vocals. Although pop is the pervading style here, there is some delightful variety, too. The catchy, '60sish single "Causa y Efecto" also appears as a trad-banda mix, and the singer skillfully handles the countryish lilt of "Amaneci sin Tu" and the reggaeton-flavored "Ni Rosas Ni Juguetes."

Paulina Rubio's giddy, silly personality bubbles forth all over this album; she sounds like she's having a blast on every song, even the ones that are about the pitfalls of love. She's a pure pop artist, throwing anything and everything at the wall with no goal beyond a hooky melody, and Gran City Pop has plenty of them. Arrangements run the gamut from the acoustic guitar and organ of "Amanecí Sin Ti" to the big sampled Gary Glitter beat of first single "Causa y Efecto," the New Order-style pulsing bassline of "Enséñame," and the Lady GaGa-esque electro-disco of "Algo de Ti," with sampled strings rubbing against hard synth lines. Perhaps the most surprising track on the disc, though, and one of its definite high points, is the hip-hop/ranchero fusion "Ni Rosas Ni Juguetes," which sounds like it could have been produced by Camilo Lara of Mexican Institute of Sound. Over a thunderous boom-bap beat, Rubio half-raps, half-sings about how flowers and toys won't earn her love; it's exactly the kind of culture-blending, boundary-dissolving sound that encapsulates modern Latin pop, and it's brilliant. Almost miraculously, this album's style-hopping, from electro to pop/rock (sometimes sounding like Electronic, as on "A Contraluz") to indefinable blends of whatever works, never becomes tiresome. That's a tribute not only to Rubio's producers, but to her own force of personality. She's one of the most vibrant performers in Latin pop, and based on this album, she's not going anywhere anytime soon. ~ Phil Freeman minimize