For much of the lead-up to his debut album “Next,” Xavi has been in a transitional period. After signing to Interscope at 17 years old in 2022, the Mexican-American singer-songwriter used his label advance to buy a street racing truck that he ended up crashing, leaving him in a days-long coma with a fractured skull. This all happened just as his first string of música mexicana singles — “Ojitos De Miel” and the racy “Amigos Con Derecho,” among others — were starting to gain traction online.
Now 20 years old, Xavi is moving ahead resolutely with a 15-song LP that combines tongue-in-cheek songwriting with guitar-laden melodies. The album builds on last year’s viral hits “La Víctima” and “La Diabla,” which led to his debut on the Billboard Hot 100, to “Poco a Poco” with Dareyes De La Sierra and “Modo DND” with Tony Aguirre. The only new feature on the tracklist comes from Xavi’s brother and fellow Interscope artist Fabio Capri on the vengeful and borderline emo, “Tu Casi Algo” (“You’re Almost Something”), which has the buoyant flow of a pop-rock song but also double bass and rhythm guitars driving the pair’s nearly indistinguishable nasal voices as they harmonize, “Delete the pics / I already erased you completely from my life / and the withdrawal starts of your almost something.”
The album positions itself as “good” against “evil,” as signified in the cartoonish angel vs. devil album art, with assists from trap corrido producers Danny Felix (Natanel Cano, Karol G) and Variety Hitmaker (2023), Ernesto Fernandez (“Ella Baila Sola” by Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma). The album starts off at high speed but drops to a slower pace that begins with “La Diosa,” where Xavi leans into softer vocal inflections about his all-consuming infatuation for a “goddess.”
But what really separates “Next” from the mass of current música mexicana releases is Xavi’s sense of adventure, his willingness to push the genre into unexpected territories. Peso Pluma did as much in his massive, 24-song “Éxodo” double-album, which is split into rap, reggaeton and corridos. Along with his distinct vocal modulations, Xavi’s pushes boundaries with variations on instrumentation and song structure.
Though the subject matter hardly ever strays from broken romantic relationships or partying, Xavi often delivers lines of relentless optimism: “I don’t look down, only up when the sun rises / I go higher / I enjoy the moment / because I don’t know if I’ll be gone tomorrow,” he sings on the mellow “Si Mañana Me Voy” (“If Tomorrow I’m Gone”). “Next” was a long time coming, but worth the wait.
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