Same Old Luis Miguel

It´s hard to believe that mexican singer Luis Miguel was once a major hottie, dancing at the beach wearing tiny white speedos in the "Cuando Calienta el Sol" (Busca una Mujer, 1988) music video. Back then, Luis Miguel was the trendiest and most arresting young pop singer in all Latin America and Spain.
It´s been almost twenty five years since his debut at age 11, and throughout 22 LP´s recorded, LM consolidated a successful career as the number one record selling artist in the spanish speaking countries.
But despise his success and stunning vocal quality, Mickey (as his friends call him) is anything but an example of progress, creativity or innovation.
Since the release of his album Romance (1991), a recollection of classic songs or "boleros", the singer has relied on covers to sustain his career, but by doing so, he brought back to the new generations the music that their parents and grandparents grew up listening to, creating a sense of nationalism and pride that was beneficial for the traditional mexican songs catalog and reinforced the mexican identity amongst the new generations.
However, as an artist, Luis Miguel is perceived as stagnated. One can easily go through all his discography without distinguishing any evolution. His new album Complices (2008) is as impeccable as all his previous work, with beautiful love songs, precious arrangements and angelical performances, but any of the 12 tracks in this album could be easily exchanged with any track from any of his previous records and no one would even notice the difference. Every Luis Miguel record sounds just the same, feels the same and is essentially the same. And far from this being interpreted as a "style", it reflects the lack of a personal proposal, which in my opinion, is what makes art interesting.
Mickey used to be a gorgeous young man, with a ripped body and always impeccable, but he clearly abandoned himself pretty much at the same time he abandoned his creative passion. If art is the expression of the artist through a specific medium, then it is not surprising to see no evolution in the career of a man who has looked overweighted since 1991. He became conformist with his personal image at the same time he stopped caring about evolving as an artist. He has a beautiful face, so why bother staying in shape, He has a beautiful voice, so why bother taking it further?.
With a permanent fake tan and Armani suits, Luis Miguel seems to be just like his albums, pretty in the outside, impeccable, but unfortunately empty, stagnated and lacking passion, with apparently nothing revolving inside.
Good album, same old artist.