Rating:
Genre:
Latin
Release Date: 11/24/2006
For
Celestial, their third Spanish-language studio album,
RBD continued working with producers
Carlos Lara and
Armando Ávila, each of whom graced the
teen pop group with roughly a half-dozen songs.
Lara and
Ávila had been largely responsible for the run of hits
RBD enjoyed on their first two albums,
Rebelde (2004) and
Nuestro Amor (2005), both commercial smash hits throughout the Americas. Here the two producers stick with their winning formula and wind up with a few standout songs:
"Tal Vez Después," "Ser o Parecer," and
"Dame," which are front-loaded for a catchy kickoff to the album. The songs that follow aren't quite as charming, granted, yet they're not bad either, for
Lara and
Ávila are well-seasoned professionals who know how to craft appealing
pop and dress it up fashionably. Previous to
RBD,
Lara earned his stripes on such
teen pop projects as the
Clase 406 soundtrack (based upon a telenovela, like
RBD) and the
boy band UFF.
Ávila, on the other hand, guided
La Quinta Estación to significant success, and he had a large hand in the brilliant outcome of
Aleks Syntek's
Mundo Lite, one of the best
Latin pop albums in recent years. So while a legion of critics are sure to dismiss
Celestial as further trash from this musically challenged troupe of kid actors, the international appeal of
Anahi Portilla,
Alfonso Herrera,
Christian Chavez,
Maite,
Dulce Maria, and
Christopher Uckermann (i.e.,
RBD) couldn't be clearer: they have executive production backing from
Camilo Lara, VP of A&R and marketing for
EMI Mexico; they're photogenically attractive, without question, and evidently well likable from a teenage point of view; they're willing to play their designated character roles (just consider the cover images of the CD -- the ridiculous amount of eyeliner on the boys, the sexed-up dress of the girls, the mussed-up hairstyles -- as well as the group's willingness to re-record their music for the Brazilian and English-language markets); and they work with two of the most accomplished
Latin pop producers in the business as well as an array of ace songwriters. In the end, such a factory-line approach undoubtedly amounts to generic music, and indeed,
Celestial isn't all that different from
Nuestro Amor (however, the departure of songwriter
Max di Carlo, who had written their initial hits, including their theme song
"Rebelde" does differentiate this from their superior debut album). But as with any heavily invested mass-marketed product, it generally pays off to give customers what they want and expect, and
Celestial should indeed please the
teen pop group's hemisphere-spanning fan base as well as the suits at
EMI and the industry analysts at
Billboard.
~Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
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