A.B. Quintanilla III Presents From Kumbia Kings to Kumbia AllStarz

A.B. Quintanilla delivers the final blow to the Kumbia Kings with the release of the Kumbia AllStarz debut; the title of the album says it all.

The four most important members of the Kings are now in the AllStarz: el cuñado Chris Perez en la guitarra, el Gipper en el acordeón, Irvin Salinas aka PeeWee on vocals and Quintanilla himself as the producer. But are we talking about the same band with a different name?

The Allstarz continue the tradition of perfectly spun cumbia cotton candy with sprinkles of rap'n'ton and R&B. But in place of the Kings' gritty "roots" sound, Quintanilla has traded up for a bigger and more polished pop sound. The overall production is more electronic with PeeWee's voice run through a vocoder on several songs. But whatever differences there may be, the new incarnation is still defined by Quintanilla's consistent ability to create chart-topping hits.

Chiquilla, with its catchy Nintendo-style intro, is the clear and obvious winner, with no less than three remixes provided on the album: Salsa, Bachata and Batucada-sung-in-Portuguese versions. Other notable tracks include covers of classic Latin pop songs like "Parece Que Va a Llover" and "Speedy González" and the mid-tempo romantic ballad "Anoche No Dormí".

Quintanilla excels at getting himself in trouble with former bandmates, Mexicans, the press and some of his fans but his real talent is crafting earworm pop with sabor de cumbia. At that, Quintanilla is the king.