Contra La Corriente

Marc Anthony bet his voice against a full salsa orchestra here and won, proving a romantic tenor could carry hard-swinging brass without ever raising a fist.

The title track drives forward on montuno piano and a horn section that never lets up, yet Anthony sings against that current rather than over it, holding back where a lesser voice would push. He treats the ballad and the dance floor as one instrument, so "Y Hubo Alguien" arrives as heartbreak you can move to. That refusal to separate the romantic from the rhythmic is what pulled a young Nuyorican audience toward salsa when everyone assumed the form belonged to their parents. He made longing danceable, and the record has been doing that work in Latin dance halls ever since.