In 2020,
Kali Uchis released
Sin Miedo (Del Amor y Otros Demonios) ¿, her first Spanish-language album. Greeted by her label with trepidation, they strongly advised her not to release a foreign-language album saturated in cumbia, boleros, and jazz-pop romanticos. The label declined to promote it, and it didn't chart.
Uchis was vindicated when the track "Telepatía" was used in a TikTok lip-sync challenge and garnered more than a billion streams. At 2022's Latin American Music Awards, the singer/songwriter told reporters she'd finished her third and fourth albums, one in English and one in Spanish. The soulful
Red Moon in Venus was in English and debuted at number four on in the Top 200.
Orquídeas, its simultaneously recorded companion, is a mirror-image opposite in many ways -- save for that voice and iconic vocal phrasing. All but one track is in Spanish, and it reflects her love of elegantly funky R&B, dembow, bolero, jazzy salsa, and reggaeton. While its production style is as dreamy as
Red Moon's, it's also eerier, a nocturnal set for dreamers and dancers. The album's 14 tracks offer several collaborations reflecting her stylistic ambitions. Furthermore, she includes soft emotive vocal choruses in elegant, hooky midtempo songs to satisfy early fans during this creative evolution.
Opener "¿Cómo Así?" touches on
Red Moon's production style for gentle continuity. The jam offers double-timed beats, layered vocal choruses, and ambient electronics. "Igual Que un Ángel" with
Peso Pluma offers bumping R&B with ethereal synths and tight beats, governed by a rubbery post-disco bassline framing swooning, romantic lyrics. "Diosa" melds club-floor electronica with jazzy soul and syncopated merengue. The single "Te Mata" is a steamy, sensual string-drenched bolero that contrasts with the edgy urbano beats on perreo jam "Muñekita," which features raps by dembow heavyweight
El Alfa and
JT from American hip-hip duo
City Girls. (
JT raps a Spanish nursery rhyme like she's delivering a criminal indictment.) The track samples from the chorus of 2003's "Papi Chulo" by
Lorna. The English-language "Young Rich & In Love" is pillowy with a warm, edgy bassline that underscores the resonant eroticism in its lyrics. The hit single "Labios Mordidos" with
Karol G weds reggaeton, hip-hop, and electro-cumbia under a sharp, vampy synth line. "Tu Corazón Es Mío" is a soul-tiged romantico with slippery backbeats, layered strings, and vocal production that recalls the golden years of
Philadelphia International.
Rauw Alejandro and
Uchis render "No Hay Ley Parte 2" as a sterling progressive reggaeton, layering son and EDM atop its sharp-edged perreo strut. Closer "Dame Beso // Muévete" offers orchestral accompaniment as it walks a tightrope between Mexican bolero, Cuban salsa, and Colombian funk, framed with futurist horns. On
Orquídeas,
Uchis remains true to herself by restlessly expanding her music's stylistic reach, embracing the past as instructor to the present. It is as aesthetically appealing as it is musically adventurous. ~ Thom Jurek
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