Consumer Guide Album

Latin Reggae [Putumayo World Music, 2008]
Really, I wasn't expecting reggaeton, just maybe the deep thrum of Bristol Brooklyn Bridge on Rough Guide's Latin funk comp. What I got was Barcelona, the whitest hotbed of internationalism on the planet. Six of 11 tracks hail from that paradise, and whatever the artists' political bona fides--said to be legion, including a tithe or something to combat poverty in Latin America (tricky term, that "Latin")--they could pick up some skank from the Bellamy Brothers, who I bet would still also have better lyrics even if I knew what these were. The bouncy cheer and quiet comfort always purveyed by this label run amok. C-