Dethroned by dismayed
merengue
devotees who resented her obvious
pop
-crossover ambitions, onetime Queen
Olga Tanon
found herself in an uncomfortable position circa 2003, a half-decade after she began her rocky drift toward the middle of the road. Sure, she scored some big hits along the way (
"Tu Amor,"
"Mienteme,"
"Asi Es la Vida"
) and certainly broadened her appeal internationally because of her poppier mannerisms. Yet this success didn't match the success she experienced during the mid-'90s when she was recording strictly
tropical
music. In fact, each of
Tanon
's
-crossover albums fared less well than its predecessor, and her latest,
Sobrevivir
, didn't even break the Top Ten of the Top
Latin
Albums chart, the first time since 1994 she hadn't done so. Hence the impeachment of the Queen of
Merengue
. Then in 2003 came
A Puro Fuego
, which seemed like an act of appeasement. It was
's first beginning-to-end
album since
Llevame Contigo
(1997), and it's probably the best beginning-to-end album in her entire discography -- to date, and probably ever after, too. That's because it's a compilation of her greatest
merengues
ever, topped off by two versions of a fantastic new song,
"Cuando Tu No Estas."
This new song, featured here in both
and
reggaeton
versions, is partly so fantastic because it teams
with
Sergio George
, as sure-fire a hitmaker of this type as any.
remarkably reaches all the way back to 1992 (
"Me Cambio por Ella"
) in its quest to compile the ultimate
album by
, and it does so perfectly, rounding up all the key songs, including such superlative barnburners as
"Asi Es la Vida [Version Merengue],"
"El Frio de Tu Adios,"
"Como Olvidar [Version Merengue],"
"Entre la Noche y el Dia."
If unassuming observers mistook it for a new album, that would be understandable -- it had been a long time since
had released an album like this -- and if those dismayed
devotees suddenly began to reconsider their dethronement of the Queen, well, that would be understandable, too.
is indeed a persuasive declaration of peerlessness -- one assembled from the past, sure, but a peerless one all the same. Long live the Queen. ~ Jason Birchmeier