Music Review: Bad Bunny's 'Debí Tirar Más Fotos' is a love letter to Puerto Rico

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NEW YORK (AP) — Just in time for Three Kings Day, Bad Bunny has released his sixth studio album, an opus on his beloved Puerto Rico.

On “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” which translates to “I should have taken more photos,” Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio pulls from the island's rich musical history and hybridizes it.

The journey to “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” began with the release of “El Clúb" in early December, a song that effortlessly combines house rhythms, electronic production — courtesy MAG, La Paciencia and Saox — and nylon-stringed plena guitars. It was an interesting tease: Here, Benito marries pop modernity with a classical, Puerto Rican folk style. Not unlike Mexican corridos, with narrative lyrics that spread messages to its people, plena has been known as “El Periodico Cantado” or “the singing newspaper” in English.

Then came “Pitorro de Coco,” named after the Puerto Rican coconut-flavored spirit, a downtrodden holiday song built on a jíbara rhythm that interpolates a song from Chuíto el de Bayamón’s “Música Jíbara Para Las Navidades."

Both, it would turn out, were ideal introductions to a new era for the artist. “Debí Tirar Más Fotos" is rooted in música jíbara and other Puerto Rican folkloric musical styles but works to evolve them. That's found in the salsas “Baile Inolvidable" and “La Mudanza," or the opening track “NuevaYol,” a love letter to New York that weaves dembow into a sample of El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico’s “Un Verano en Nueva York." It shouts out both Willie Colón and Toñita, the matriarch one of the city's last-standing Puerto Rican social clubs.

The shared language of Puerto Rico's traditions transformed into Bad Bunny's present exists in his collaborations, too. He features talent from his homeland like the band Chuwi, Dei V, Omar Courtz, Pleneros de la Cresta, and the next-generation superstar RaiNao, one woman at the forefront of the changing face of urbano.

Those listeners eager to hear more politically motivated songs a la “El Apagón" won't be disappointed, either. There's “Turista" and the affecting “Lo Que Pasó a Hawaii," where Bad Bunny sings “No quiero que pase contigo lo que pasó a Hawaii," (“I don’t want what happened in Hawaii to happen to you,") a rallying cry for Puerto Rico's cultural autonomy.

“Debí Tirar Más Fotos” follows 2023’s “Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana” (“Nobody Knows What Will Happen Tomorrow”) and successfully detours from it. That record produced the ubiquitous, luxury-obsessed “Monaco" but failed to capture the summertime spirit of 2022 “Un Verano Sin Ti" — still Spotify's most-streamed album of all time. Instead, it saw Benito returning to the Latin trap of his debut, “X 100PRE." Perhaps the album was in an attempt to rekindle connection to his day one fans, though they've never left. At the time, with its lack of reggaetón and obsession with the trials and tribulations of fame, critics worried one of the world’s biggest artists had abandoned his island for the glittery promises of Hollywood.

“Debí Tirar Más Fotos" should immediately alleviate any concerns. It is an album for his loyalists and new listeners alike, but most importantly, it is one of Bad Bunny's best because it does what he has always done best: “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” celebrates the music at the heart of Puerto Rico and brings it to the world.