Calle 13 “Residente O Visitante”

Calle 13's new album, Residente O Visitante, is a little bit of everything – except, maybe, reggaetón. With a brash, fresh sound and intelligent – if lewd – lyrics, this outing could promote the Puerto Rican duo of René “Residente” Pérez and Eduardo “Visitante” Cabra to the heights of such world-class music acts as the Beastie Boys, Manu Chao and Bob Marley.

From the gaucho styling of lead single “Tango del Pecado” (the Sin Tango) to the neo-bossa of “Un Beso De Desayuno” (A Kiss For Breakfast) and the electro-rockabilly of “Sin Exagerar” (Not Exaggerating) featuring Tego Calderón, vocalist Residente effortlessly weaves through instrumentalist Visitante's perversely pop arrangements and bouncy, raw beats.

The raunchy yet, somehow, romantic “Mala Suerte Con El 13” (Bad Luck With The 13th), a duet with Spanish rapper Mala Rodriguez, ventures into NC-17 territory with some derrty, derrty wordplay while the point-blank, if dreamy “Llégale A Mi Guarida” (Come To My Lair) features Residente and Vicentíco of the legendary Los Fabulosos Cadillacs exploring the rights and wrongs of political violence:

“Llégale aquí, a mi guarida
Jurao, to’ el mundo aquí es pura vida
Pero si tú atenta en contra e mi vida
Quizás una bomba suicida
haga el trabajo”

Step to my lair
I swear, it's all alive here
But if you try to rub me out
Maybe a suicide bomb
will be my response.

If references to middle east terrorism sound out of place on what many expect to be a reggaeton party record, it's not the album's only affront to expectations. On the spare horn-powered "La Fokin Moda," the titular rhyme expresses cuts to the chase: Calle 13 speaks a new kind of spanish and has mastered a new kind of latin music. For a taste of their versatility, sample the retro-techno-reggaeton stylings of the dadaist "Uiyi Guaye" which transitions gracefully into the spaghetti western dreamscape of "Algo Con Sentido" (Something That Makes Sense).

As "random" as these songs may seem, there's not a single accidental note on this record – it's as deliberate as a molotov cocktail. It's no surprise then, that the album ends with an indulgent "F.U." to Calle 13's haters and imitators on the 8-bit, cartoony “La Era De La Copiaera” (The Age of Copies), a track which narrates the group's sudden rise to fame over the last year over a music bed that would be just as appropriate on Fantasma by Cornelius or the next Eminem record.

With all due respect to these two irreverent mavericks, the public could do with a few more Calle 13 clones.