''The Last'' is the fifth and final studio album by the Bachata group Aventura, released on June 9, 2009. In the "Intro" of this album, Anthony "Romeo" Santos states that this could possibly be their last album; his prediction came true in July 2011 when the group publicly confirmed it was breaking up for good. ''The Last'' became the top selling Latin album of 2009 and 2010. The Last spent 23 weeks at number one in the Latin Billboard chart. The Last debuted at number 5 in the Billboard chart and number 1 in the Latin Billboard chart.

Album information

One of the members of the group, the guitarist Lenny told MTV that the album was recorded in Wyclef's studio, and stated that Wyclef wanted to record a song with them. The song was "Spanish Fly", which features

Wyclef Jean Nel Ust Wyclef Jean (; born October 17, 1969) is a Haitian rapper, musician, and actor. At the age of nine, Jean immigrated to the United States with his family. He first achieved fame as a member of the New Jersey hip hop group the Fugees, a ...

and

Ludacris Christopher Brian Bridges (born September 11, 1977), known professionally as Ludacris (, homophonous with 'ludicrous' in American English), is an American rapper, actor, record producer and record executive. Born in Champaign, Illinois, Ludac ...

. Rumors were circulating that this album would be the last of the group. In the "Intro" of this album, Anthony Santos states that this could possibly be their last album. However, the group said that this is their last album with their label Premium Latin Music. So there will still be Aventura albums to come in the near future, but however in 2011, that was rebuked after Santos announced that the group is breaking up for good. Aside from their original Bachata sound, the album also explores new genres for the group. In the song "All Up 2 You", has a

Europop Europop (also spelled Euro pop) is a style of pop music that originated in Europe during the mid-to-late 1960s and developed to today's form throughout the late 1970s. Europop topped the charts throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with revivals and ...

dance sound with

auto-tune Auto-Tune (or autotune) is an audio processor introduced in 1996 by American company Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a proprietary device to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music recording and performances. Auto-Tu ...

effects. Also the songs "Spanish Fly" has a dance-pop sound. The New York Times called "The Last", Aventura's surest, catchiest record. The group collaborated with reggaeton duo

Wisin & Yandel Wisin & Yandel is a Puerto Rican reggaeton duo consisting of Wisin and Yandel. They started their career in the late 1990s and have been together since, winning several awards including a Grammy Award in 2009. They became the first and the onl ...

Akon Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam (; born April 16, 1973), known mononymously as Akon, is a Senegalese-American singer, record producer, and entrepreneur. He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of " Locked Up" (featuring Styles P ...

, and

. The album has become thus far the group's best album. The album spawned four hit singles, two which topped the Latin charts, and has been the #1 album for 23 weeks on

Billboard Top Latin Albums Top Latin Albums is a record chart published by ''Billboard'' magazine and is labeled as the most important music chart for Spanish language, full-length albums in the American music market. Like all ''Billboard'' album charts, the chart is base ...

. At the Premio Lo Nuestro 2010 awards, the album was awarded "Tropical Album of the Year". At the

Billboard Latin Music Awards The ''Billboard'' Latin Music Awards grew out of the ''Billboard'' Music Awards program from ''Billboard'' magazine, an industry publication charting the sales and radio airplay success of musical recordings. The ''Billboard'' awards are the La ...

of 2010 in held in San Juan, Puerto Rico Aventura won nine awards including one for Album of the Year for "The Last"

Singles

Por un Segundo "Por Un Segundo" ( en, italic=yes, For a Second) is Aventura's first single from their fifth and final studio album ''The Last'' (2009). The song reached number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot Latin Tracks chart which was the first time for Aventura ...

" is the first single release from the album, released in January 2009 along with its music video. "Por un Segundo" became the group's first number one on the ''Billboard'' Top Latin Tracks chart. "

All Up 2 You ''All Up 2 You'' is the second single by Aventura from their album '' The Last''. The song features Akon and Wisin & Yandel. On April 23, they performed the song at the 2009 Latin Billboard Music Awards. Aventura member Romeo uses the auto-tune ...

" was released as the second single. The song features R&B artist

, and

reggaeton Reggaeton (, ), also known as reggaetón and reguetón (), is a music style that originated in Panama during the late 1980s. It was later popularized in Puerto Rico. It has evolved from dancehall and has been influenced by American hip hop, ...

duo

and a remix with dancehall artist Adrian Banton. the song reached top five on the charts, peaking at number four. " Su Veneno" was released as the third single in July 2009. The song was released as a

bolero Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It has ...

version and a bachata version the following day. The song became another top five hit peaking at number four in the Hot Latin Tracks. " Dile al Amor" was released as the fourth single in late 2009 and became the group's second number one single on the Hot Latin Tracks. " El Malo" was released as the fifth single in early 2010. Initially, the song did not reach same success as the previous singles on the Hot Latin Tracks until it was re-released. The single became another top five hit, peaking at number five on Hot Latin Tracks and number one on the Tropical Airplay charts. "El Desprecio" was released as the promo single and only peaked number forty on the Tropical Airplay charts, it was also featured on the soundtrack for Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony.

Chart performance

''The Last'' debuted at number five in the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200 with sales of 37,000 units, the act's best sales week ever. The album also arrived at number-one on the

Top Latin Albums Top Latin Albums is a record chart published by ''Billboard'' magazine and is labeled as the most important music chart for Spanish language, full-length albums in the American music market. Like all ''Billboard'' album charts, the chart is based ...

chart, where it became their first chart-topper and holding the number one position for 16 non-consecutive weeks on the top Latin charts and becoming the best selling Latin album of 2009 with 246,000 copies sold. The group had charted three previous top five sets there. The album has sold more than 400,000 copies on USA.

Critical reception

John Bush of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

gave the album a somewhat positive review. He called the lead single "Por un Segundo" a "straight bachata, rhythmic and sweet" and noted that the crossovers are put on the latter half of the album. Tijana Ilich of

About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, ...

praised the vocals of Anthony "Romeo" Santos and the called song "Soy Hombre" the best on the album. On the other hand, she criticized the lack of diversity on the album as "Basically all-bachata album".

Track listing

Producers

The album was produced mostly by Anthony "Romeo" Santos,

Lenny Santos Lenny Santos a.k.a. Len Melody (born October 24, 1979) is an American guitarist, composer, producer and entrepreneur. He rose to global fame as the co-founder of the bachata group Aventura where he served as producer, lead guitarist, vocalist, c ...

, and Gerry Grimaud, Jr. Other artist and producers were involve in producing the following tracks: *

Jerry Duplessis Jerry "Wonda" Duplessis (born 9 August 1975) is a Haitian music producer, film score composer, entrepreneur and philanthropist. His first major success was as a producer for the Fugees' 1996 album '' The Score''. He also played the bass guitar w ...

, and Logic – Spanish Fly *

Tainy Marcos Efraín Masís Fernández (born August 9, 1989), known professionally as Tainy, is a Puerto Rican record producer and songwriter. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he entered the world of reggaeton with his work on '' Mas Flow 2 ...

, Victor "El Nasi", and Marioso –

*Angel Fernandez – La Curita *

Henry Santos Jeter Henry Santos Jeter (born Henry Santos on December 15, 1979) is a Dominican singer, songwriter, and producer. Best known for his tenure as a singer and songwriter in the bachata group Aventura. He made his debut as a solo artist in 2011. Early ...

– Princesita

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Sales and certifications

Release history

References

External links

Aventura official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Last, The 2009 albums Aventura (band) albums