Renaciendo

When duranguense's popularity grew in the 1990s and 2000s, so did its diversity. A wide variety of recordings have had the bouncy duranguense sound. Some duranguense artists are traditionally ranchera in their outlook, performing a lot of José Alfredo Jiménez standards; some duranguense artists perform narcocorridos; some duranguense artists have incorporated hip-hop; and Los Horóscopos de Durango have even combined duranguense with Dominican bachata on occasion. AK-7's Renaciendo usually favors the romantic Latin pop side of duranguense; many of the performances combine duranguense's rhythmic bounce with the type of smooth, polished Latin pop romanticism one associates with Marco Antonio Solís, Joan Sebastían, and Juan Gabriel. Granted, Renaciendo is hardly an album of slow ballad tempos. But if you speeded up Solís and Gabriel's ballads — if you made their urbane romanticism faster, more danceable, and more rhythmic, the energetic results would be comparable to what AK-7 does on tracks like "Eres Mi Mundo," "Por Amarte," and "Tu Convencela." That romantic outlook also prevails on a likable cover of Spanish pop singer David Bisbal's "Digale." But not everything on this 39-minute CD is about making duranguense safe for romantic Latin pop. AK-7 take a hardcore ranchera approach on "Regalo de Bodas," and their proficiency with corridos (Mexican folk narratives) is evident on "Corrido de Juan Armenta" and "Corrido de Juan Martha" (a standard that has been recorded by countless regional Mexican artists over the years). So even though the Latin pop factor is quite high on much of Renaciendo, there is some traditionalism on this album as well. On the whole, Renaciendo is way too pop-minded for regional Mexican purists, but listeners who appreciate the Latin pop side of duranguense as well as its more traditional side will find Renaciendo to be a respectable effort that isn't without variety.