Let’s get the caveats out of the way first. I have absolutely no right to be critically reviewing the latest album by Latin music superstar Bad Bunny. I don’t speak Spanish. I can just about manage ‘hola’ while on my holidays. I have never been to Puerto Rico and know very little of the culture over there. And I’m listening to this huge record from my freezing cold house in Manchester sipping a cup of tea to stay warm. I absolutely shouldn’t have an opinion anyone should listen to here. But DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS is one of the most instantly enjoyable albums I’ve heard in ages and so I’m here writing about it anyway.
From the opening moments of ‘NUEVAYoL’ this is a creative, daring and thrilling album that pulls from every part of Puerto Rican music and fuses it with modern reggaeton, pop and more. The way that song in particular switches up over and over again, there’s rarely a moment that this album stays still and it’s all the better for it. The sound of this album from start to finish is a joy to hear, so experimental but full of infectious rhythms that take this music straight to the club.
DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS is so musically creative enough that the language barrier I can imagine lots of readers of this very website will have just isn’t there. Yes this is an album that becomes even more special when you hear Bad Bunny grapple with the gentrification of his home island, or dive into more personal feelings on his place in worldwide music, but even without it you feel the connection to Puerto Rico in every moment. I love the pop guitar line on ‘WELTiTA’, or the dark club thud of ‘El Club’ which defies expectations. This is such a dynamic record and it’s impossible to not feel the rhythm.
Much of my criticism of Bad Bunny’s previous albums have been in their extensive length, well over 20 songs and close to 90 minutes on his last two studio albums, so the 60 minutes here ends up feeling slight in comparison. It’s all for the better as it leaves DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS as an all killer no filler experience that only gets better every time I go back to it.
It’s easy to only mention Benito’s skills as a rapper, but on tracks like ‘Eoo’ or the almost ballad ‘BOKeTE’ his vocals are such a huge part of the appeal of him as a star. I continue to be baffled how I live somewhere where songs like ‘DTMF’ and ‘Baile Inolvidable’ won’t end up as the biggest hits of the year because they are massive massive songs.
DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS is such a diverse sounding record in a genre where albums can end up sounding one note. No moment across this record sounds like another in the best kind of way and it makes for undeniably the strongest singular ‘album’ of Bad Bunny’s career.
The first monumental mainstream album of 2025, I’m 99% sure it will end up being the biggest ‘selling’ album of the year worldwide and when the music is this brilliant it’s hard to argue why it shouldn’t.
Words by Sam Atkins
Picky Bastards 
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