“What Aura means to me is what you have in your heart, what you transmit onto other people,” Ozuna tells Apple Music about his expansive second album. So what’s inside the Puerto Rican reggaetonero’s heart that he’s hoping to transmit here? Certainly a new level of ambition. Like his debut album, 2017’s Odisea, and the half-decade of singles that led up to it, Aura once again transforms Latin club beats into lush R&B-flavored hits—check out “La Modelo,” a slow-jam duet with a surprisingly soulful Cardi B. But the genre-hopping array of guests inspires Ozuna to experiment even further. He glides across a lilting bachata groove alongside an especially angelic Romeo Santos (“Ibiza”), mixes euphoric tropical-house synths with a bilingual hook from Akon (“Coméntale”), and even fills his solo cuts with twists like blazing salsa horns (“Aunque Me Porté Mal”). Ozuna was already a chart-topping sensation—now he’s out to push reggaetón’s boundaries.
Audio Extras
- Cardi B was the missing ingredient to the success of “La Modelo.”