Itās been nearly four years since Enrique Iglesiasā last album Euphoria. The build-up for new album Sex and Love first started in 2012 with the release of single Finally Found You featuring Sammy Adams. Since then Enrique has teased fans with Turn The Night Up, Heart Attack, Iām A Freak featuring Pitbull and Beautiful featuring Kylie Minogue. With five tracks already out from the album, itās about time Sex and Love was released.
Sex and Love sees Enrique teaming up with a host of collaborators over the albumās 15 tracks. In fact there are only 5 tracks that donāt feature another vocalist making the album feel more like a duets record than a solo studio album. Things kick off with recent hit single Iām A Freak which is the first of three collaborations with the omnipresent Pitbull. Whilst weāre not the biggest fan of Pitbull it has to be said that he works pretty well with Enrique. Maybe small doses of the rapper are the way forward?
Upon first listen a lot of Sex and Love sounds very familiar due to the amount of tracks that have already been released. That surprisingly works in the recordās favour rather than against it and as a whole the album is a cohesive effort that stays for the most part in the uptempo dance/pop sound heās been enjoying success in for the past few years. Tracks youāve already heard such as Heart Attack and Turn The Night Up give you a clear indication of the sound of Sex and Love with Enrique clearly comfortable in the commercial sound heās perfected.
Across the album Enrique combines hand-claps and Jennifer Lopez for the catchy Physical (which wouldnāt sound out of place next to J.Loās more recent singles), sings in Spanish for the acoustic Loco with India Martinez, and actually makes good use of Flo Ride on the reggae-tinged There Goes My Baby. Anyone who can make Flo Rida sound decent deserves credit in our book.
Surprisingly one of the best moments on Sex and Love is a ballad. Only A Woman is destined to sit alongside previous hit Hero as one of Enriqueās most emotive and beautiful songs. The simple stripped-back track showcases his voice away from vocal gimmicks and guest vocalists.
The biggest disappointment on the album is without a doubt the Kylie collaboration Beautiful. Arguably two of the music industryās sexiest stars youād expect something sizzling or at least along the lines of Enriqueās Nicole Scherzinger duet Heartbeat. Sadly Beautiful is auto-tuned to within an inch of its life and is dull, dull, dull.
If youāre looking for an album thatās truly original then Sex and Love isnāt going to cut the mustard. If all you want is an album to crank up at a party then you could do a lot worse than this one. Enrique has never been the most consistent of artists but when heās on the money heās pretty damn good. Sex and Love is a mixed affair but itās his most consistent album to date and there are plenty of songs weāll be revisiting.