3.0

After years chasing pop and English-language crossovers, Marc Anthony came back to salsa here, and "Vivir Mi Vida" turned a survivor's shrug into one of the biggest tropical anthems of the decade.

The song adapts Khaled's "C'est la vie," but Anthony's phrasing is what carries it — that soaring, throat-baring build on the chorus, riding a horn section that never lets the celebration curdle into sadness even as the lyrics count losses. Elsewhere the record leans on tradition rather than novelty, reviving the bolero warhorse "La Copa Rota" and José Feliciano's "Flor Pálida" as if to remind everyone he had never really left the form. His voice is smaller and more weathered than it was in the '90s, and that wear is the point; he sings these as a man who has lived enough to earn them. The pop version of "Vivir Mi Vida" tacked on at the end feels like a hedge, but the salsa original is the reason this album stuck.