The holiday season is a great time for music — Latin music in particular. Nothing says it's the holidays in SoFla better than a nice little salsita, maybe something by El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico or Jose Feliciano. But glaringly absent from this season's playlists is La Universidad de la Salsa, which you can take as a bad sign.
Sure, you could just dust off your old holiday playlist and bust out El Combo's Arroz Con Habichuela (Rice and Beans) and Feliciano's "Feliz Navidad" ("Merry Christmas"). Or you could try out the new shit. But once you do, you may decide nothing beats the classics.
Here are five Latin albums that might ruin Christmas:
5. Las Ardillitas's Exitos Navideños: Las Ardillitas translates to "The Chipmunks." Only these don't look like any Chipmunks I grew up on! Someone get Alvin on the phone. These motherfuckers are going down.
4. Bachata #1's Vol 4.: 'Tis the season for tropical music, which means 'tis also the season for compilation records. And Bachata #1's will get all Dominican tigres and tigresas dancing into the wee hours.
3. Top Latin Tropical: This one's a collection featuring everyone from Rey Ruiz to NG2 to Huey Dunbar, so it's a little like A Christmas Carol, only with the Ghost of Christmas Past coming back again and again.
4. Diana Reyes's Navidad Duranguense: If you just said, "WTF?," you're not the only one. Reyes dropped the same album five years ago. Of course, this one does have a new song. Seriously? All they could muster in five years was one new song?
5. Chicas de Navidad's A Spanish Christmas: This is an album featuring your favorite Christmas songs sung by little children. Touching. Of course, the title could use some work. After all, you'd think someone marketing an album to Latinos would know better than to title it Spanish, when it really isn't from the motherland at all. And besides... it's in English.
Bonus Single: Enrique Iglesias' s"Tonight (I'm Fucking You)"No lie... Kike put this one out recently, featuring none other than Ludacris. Just turn up the volume, and watch your family light up like a National Lampoon Christmas tree.
