Marc Anthony looks emaciated.
It’s no wonder, since he’s been on a frugal diet of love and love-locked since his last album. But food such as this must be good for the soul, for, in spite of an unswerving groove that marks all these Spanish-tinged English throwbacks, the music is eventually attractive.
His first English album, it has yet not been mended of its Spanish extraction, where the immensely popular "I Need You" has a foreign alter ego in "Te Tengo Aqui". The music is very Marc, with high-strung vocals and an R&B-laced salsa groove. Vacillating between up-tempo pop like "I’ve Got You", "I Need You" and "I Reach For You" (notice the pronoun trend) and elastic ballads like "Show Me The Way" and "Do You Believe In Loneliness", Marc doesn’t deviate too much from his formula, except in the galvanic Rob Thomas/Cory Rooney-written "Tragedy".
The homegrown audience appreciates this novel music right now. But if Anthony doesn’t change his tune soon, he’ll be Marc-ed as maudlin.
This article was first published on18 Oct 2002.