Review: Romeo Santos and Justin Timberlake beg for love with high drama

POP/ROCK

Romeo Santos and Justin Timberlake, "Sin Fin"

Ever the canny collaborator, Timberlake joins Santos — formerly of the Dominican-rooted boy band Aventura, now a stadium act on his own — to pump up a typically imploring bachata. Both of them can always sound like they're eager for romance. "Sin Fin" ("Endless") is a bilingual pop promise with a stalking undercurrent. Timberlake sings, "Can't escape my love 'cause it's yours/Even if you walk out the door it'll chase you down." It opens with cathedral-choir harmonies, then buttresses the bongos and syncopated guitar of bachata with pop's synthesizers and hip-hop's hype-man cheers. Melding bachata and power ballad, it still begs for love with high drama.

JON PARELES, New York Times

Margo Price, "Been to the Mountain"

Price contains multitudes on her rollicking new single. "I've been a dancer, a saint, an assassin," she sings with a hard-living swagger atop a chugging guitar riff. Perhaps representing a new sonic chapter for the Nashville singer-songwriter, "Mountain" hews closer to straight-ahead rock than her usual alt-country sound. There's even a punky freakout in the middle of the song that allows her to show off the more guttural side of her voice. The striking, desert-hued music video finds Price exploring and embodying the many different aspects of her identity during a particularly potent ayahuasca trip. Embracing psychedelia is an invitation for Price to unleash her wildest side yet.

LINDSAY ZOLADZ, New York Times

The National and Bon Iver — aka Justin Vernon — have long been close. Aaron Dessner has worked with both as songwriter, musician and producer. Their overlap is in stately songs with hymnlike chords, and that's what this song is: Matt Berninger of the National and Vernon sharing harmonies in lyrics about self-doubt. It's glum and thoughtful and neatly crafted for both; it's not particularly new, but it is substantial.

JON PARELES, New York Times

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