Universal Republic
Pop, 2014

Enrique Iglesias’s midlife crisis moves to another chapter in Sex and Love, his latest offering, which continues to contain some laughably inept “sexy” tracks. Worse, he decides to hitch his sagging rear end to the overexposed yet repetitive Pitbull, of all people.

Tracks like I’m a Freak and Let Me Be Your Lover are the standard tracks Mr Iglesias sings resolutely to himself while he looks into his reflection every morning before putting on his wig. I can easily imagine him dragging some drunk groupie into the hotel room while screeching off-key Turn the Night Up only to scream and call his handlers to kick the poor dear out when she accidentally dislodges his wig while trying to unzip his pants.

The strange thing about this album – then again, can anyone make sense of a man’s midlife crisis? – is that the Spanish tracks are actually far superior to the English ones. It is as if Mr Iglesias was trolling his American audience – too many women laughing when the wig falls off, I guess – while saving the best for his Spanish audience. He isn’t shouting or screeching off-key in his Spanish tracks.

Bailando is easily the best track he has done in ages, one of the best songs in his repertoire, and it’s a beautiful mid-tempo track that will stick to the mind for a long time. The hook is a killer. The downside here is that the song may not be his – it may be the lovely creation of Descemer Bueno and Gente De Zona (featured as collaborators on the track in this album) – there is a version of this song around that sounds exactly the same as the one in this album. So, the midlife crisis may not be over yet, sigh. Still, there’s no denying that this song is made from pure awesome.

Sex and Love is, basically, more of the same old tuneless stuff from this fellow, mixed with some forgettable ballads. I’d personally recommend that you can skip this one, but do check out Bailando separately.