Considering this is album ten, it’s unsurprising that opener ‘I’m A Freak’ boasts a swagger that’s been characteristic of Iglesias’s delivery since 2010’s RedOne produced single ‘I Like It’. Unfortunately the opener suffers from a guest feature from Pitbull and excessive use of vocoder.
‘There Goes My Baby’ suffers from the same heavy-handed auto-tune and a slightly more bearable guest feature from Flo Rida. The reggae influence on the track saves it from being a complete disaster though. ‘Bailando’ adds a satisfying Latin flair to proceedings and harks back to 90s megahit ‘Bailamos’. The slowed down use of guitar and Spanish lyrics give thing a satisfying Hispanic touch but again things are overshadowed by excessive electronic effects.
The middle of the album is similarly nuked by auto-tune and despite a guest feature by Kylie Minogue Sex and Love really lags here. Slow number ‘Only A Lover’ is one of few moments were Iglesias’s lets his voice shine and it sounds especially and more crucially satisfyingly vulnerable. There’s still effects layered over the top but not to the obliterating extent of the rest of the album.
‘Physical’ is a truly filthy duet with Jennifer Lopez. It finds both Lopez and Iglesias, staples of the Latin Dance-whore scene on strong form. A club banger it may be but a particularly strong one at that. It easily outshines the earlier duet with Kylie Minogue. ‘Turn The Night Up’ delivers a typically Iglesias dance banger.
‘Loco’ with India Martinez is surprisingly vulnerable and again due to simplistic guitar backing allows Iglesias’s vocal to shine brightly. ‘Finally Found You’ with Sammy Adams is similarily euphoric to ‘Turn The Night Up’ and wouldn’t have sounded out of place on 2010’s Euphoria. It’s odd to hear Iglesias singing with a male artist who isn’t Pitbull but the dynamic works. Closing out the deluxe edition is 2011 single ‘I Like How It Feels’ which is as dull as it was when it bombed in the charts three years ago. Closing duet ‘El Peredor’ with Marco Antonio Solís is just as beautifully understated as the rest of the Spanish songs.
Bluntly Sex & Love is uninspiring. In 2010’s Euphoria, Enrique’s migration to the dancefloor felt like moving with the times and a refreshing twist on a career that had lagged in the mid-2000s: treading the same ground in 2014 shows little progression and is disappointing. Considering how good of a thing the few Spanish songs are, why he couldn’t have crowbarred a few strings-led duets onto the album in English is frankly beyond me. Embracing his vocal vulnerabilities instead of masking them in vocoder would have been a far more inspiring identity behind the album.
2/5