I was raised listening to Ruben Blade's original salsa band. It is VERY hard to judge any of his new work when you remember when "Pedro Navaja" came out, possibly one of the top 5 salsa songs of all time. Those were the golden days of salsa, when artists still had the drive and the dignity to use their music to actually reach people, not make a few bucks off a couple of singles.

Salsa now is barely starting to be seen under a new light as it has become "cool" to crossover from a Spanish-only audience into English pop music (ask Ricki Martin and Marc Anthony). 5 years ago MTV would have not even considered showcasing an artist with a Spanish-sounding name. But this is the 21st century. Spanish is cool.

Ruben Blades is a legend. In Puerto Rico we loved him like was one of our own (he is Panamanian, not that we cared for one-second). We used to call him "The Poet of Salsa." He has written some of the most beautiful, sarcastic, scary and funny songs in the salsa business in the last 20 years.

This is not a normal salsa singer/writer.

Ruben Blades spent two years recording "Tiempos." He explains the delay as due to his involvement in Panamanian politics and other personal problems. The lyrics are a sort of diary of these struggles. The songs are very deep, something that is not as common in salsa as it used to be. Blades has managed to maintain his sarcastic tone over the years, which he always used as a weapon to criticize the unfairness with which his countrymen have to live on a daily basis. To say the lyrics are beautiful and poems on their own would be a gross understatement.

As for the music, here Ruben steered a bit from the norm. This is not the salsa that you will usually encounter in a dance club. It is more of a listening music, and many times it veers far enough to classify as Spanish ballad instead of salsa. Almost jazz.

Hard-core fans of Ruben Blades will jump at this album immediately. Newcomers should stay away from it. Better go grab a "Best Of..." that covers the late 70's and early 80's and see if you like that first. The album is excellent, but it will appeal to a limited audience.