The Singles Jukebox

Pop, to two decimal places.

Don Omar ft. Natti Natasha – Dutty Love

#1 on the Latin charts… and in our hearts?


[Video][Website]
[4.67]

Brad Shoup: Once again, vocal doubling — but in a duet? Natasha is positively complacent next to Omar’s interjections, vocalizations, and mirroring. The high-end, chillout piano is in a whole other timezone from the steel drums, as the thrust of the track is from Omar’s closing forty seconds of ad-lib.
[5]

Iain Mew: I keep trying to come up with words for the sense of design functionality that I get from this and hitting things like “generic” and : “formula” but those are too negative and imply a laziness which isn’t present. Sometimes the sensible and thoughtful thing actually is to follow the rules established by your summer hit predecessors and to come up with a summer hit that just works. “Just” in both the positive and negative senses — it simply and effectively does what it is supposed to and nothing more. 
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: Where is this track taking me? One second we’re on a cliffside with swirling strings, then they swirl right back into the Fruity Loops box. Then we lollygag on to a beach chair, maybe, as a clueless DJ tries to pass Ace of Base off as reggae, then presets off as steel drums. Then we’re in some lounge where the background piano’s as lucite as the furniture. Then we’re in the club, dodging percussion thwaps. The only place where this many ersatz locales coexist so close is a cruise ship, which might explain why neither vocalist really registers.
[4]

Anthony Easton: I am not sure why I needed to know who produced this, and I am not sure that Natti Natasha has enough sophistication or uniqueness to get as many callouts as she actually does. Sort of obnoxious, if we’re going to be honest. 
[4]

Alfred Soto: A duet unctuous in any language.
[2]

Jonathan Bogart: The title might suggest that, after 2010’s “Danza Kuduro,” which rocked the Angolan dance of the title and 2011’s “Taboo,” which snatched the Brazilian lambada from the air (both [10]s for me), that the newest target of Don Omar’s global-dance rip-mania is dancehall. But no; it’s just a beachy reggaetón simmer, without even the guileless romanticism of a Chino Y Nacho or a Wisin Y Yandel to make up for the fact that Don Omar is, as his outro proves, much better at shouting his lyrics than crooning them. Natasha’s not much better, aiming at sexy and coming off as sedated; but, hey, the reggaetón beat pretty much works no matter what’s going on on top of it.
[7]

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