album rating: ★★★★☆
Genre: Salsa / Latin pop / pan-Latino / Caribbean. Amor y Control is the eleventh studio album by Panamanian singer-songwriter Rubén Blades (born Panama City, 1948) and the sixth recorded with his band Son del Solar. By the early 1990s, Blades had long established himself as the foremost literary voice in salsa — the co-author of 'Pedro Navaja', the best-selling single in the history of the genre — and had broadened his palette considerably beyond the New York salsa he had recorded with Willie Colón for Fania in the 1970s. Amor y Control represents a mature, eclectic synthesis of Caribbean and Latin American musical styles, moving between salsa, son, cumbia, reggae and rock-influenced arrangements, with all songs written by Blades himself except a Spanish-language cover of the Beatles' 'Baby's in Black'. Key tracks include the title song, the character study 'Adán García', 'Creo en Ti' (which received a music video) and the closing 'Conmemorando'. The album was arranged by Arturo Ortiz, Mike Viñas, Oscar Hernandez and Blades himself.
Label: CBS Records International / Sony Music Entertainment, released 22 September 1992. Self-produced by Rubén Blades.
Producer: Rubén Blades.
Recording studios: Power Station, New York City (NEVE VRP Console, 48-channel Sony Digital), recorded March–April 1992. Mixed at Electric Lady Studios, Greenwich Village, April 1992. Mastered by Bob Ludwig at MasterDisc, New York, May 1992.
Critical reception: The album was received as a significant addition to Blades's catalogue and a strong example of what Fania Records later described as 'a new, eclectic hybrid of pan-Latino popular music.' It received a Grammy nomination for Best Tropical Latin Album. The album demonstrated Blades's capacity to integrate diverse Caribbean and Latin American influences into a coherent and emotionally compelling body of work.
Commercial success: Amor y Control reached number 14 on the Billboard Tropical/Salsa chart. The album generated five singles: 'Creo en Ti', 'Piensa en Mí', 'West Indian Man', 'Baby's in Black' and 'El Apagón'. It consolidated Blades's standing as one of the major Latin artists of the decade at a time when he was simultaneously pursuing careers in law, acting and, subsequently, politics — he served as Panama's Minister of Tourism from 2004 to 2009.
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