The inventive Argentine duo of CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso earned awards glory and global visibility off of the unbridled creativity of 2024’s BAÑO MARÍA and the ancillary PAPOTA. Aiming to perpetuate this run, the pair return with the conceptual FREE SPIRITS, which mixes satirical jabs and knowing winks at wellness into broadly pop-informed compositions. A frenetic and funky energy propels no small amount of the material here, including “Todo Ray” and the playfully pulsating “No Me Sirve Más”. Breezier and mellower moments like “Vida Loca” occur less frequently, but nonetheless pleasantly reset the vibe. The pair’s guest list is sparse yet significant, with musical comedy vet Jack Black adding bespoke baby noises and grown-up harmonies to the video-game-derived “Goo Goo Ga Ga” and mononymous superstar Sting rocking out to “Hasta Jesús Tuvo un Mal Día”. Anderson .Paak lends his exuberant charms to the thirsty, trippy “Ay Ay Ay”, while Fred again.. helps to close things out with the peak-hour “Lo Quiero Ya !”.