The Singles Jukebox

Courtesy of Cartagena…

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Jonathan Bogart: A Colombian singer-songwriter who’s clearly learned as much from John Legend as from models closer to home, with rolling gospel rhythms and an understated soul-derived singing style, and reassuringly processed guitar breaks for listeners who get too antsy around R&B. Stick him on an EDM track and be coy about his skin tone, and he’d be festival massive.
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Alfred Soto: It boasts the languorous chug of Radiohead’s “Creep” but not TLC’s “Creep,” with Manuel Medrano sounding like José Feliciano. Its incongruity is its charm.
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Juana Giaimo: “Una y Otra Vez” is airy and keeps things simple, and Manuel Medrano’s warm voice fits it really well. Although it doesn’t offer anything innovative, I’m really thankful that he avoids being over-affected — as so often happens in Latin American love ballads. 
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Iain Mew: I really like his voice, imperfect but with determined character. The way that he weaves all across the spaces in the verses, the better to emphasise that, suggests he realises it’s the best thing he’s got going for him too.
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Cassy Gress: When you dream about walking places, do you feel your feet actually touching the ground? In my dreams, it’s less of a walk and more of a glide, kind of moving walkways at airports, but if I was hovering like an air hockey puck. “Una y Otra Vez” does the same thing, a waltz slipping gloriously through streets and countrysides as the sky darkens, as Manuel confesses that it’s time to start something serious.
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Adaora Ede: The combination of the lo-fi riff with the yodeled chorus is charming, of course, but Medrano doesn’t do much else to change the pace of this downstream ride. I somehow feel like I am being guided down the River Styx listening to this, a subtle reminder of the enduring evils of acoustic singer songwriter pop by any means.
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Will Adams: Petition to have Manual Medrano replace Ed Sheeran in the States.
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