Estoy Aquí / Estoy Aqui

This disc is surprisingly satisfying for an effort that falls squarely into the capitalization-of-your-namesake category. Ayala Jr. wisely markets himself as a vocalist rather than setting up comparisons to his famous father. A listener with a predisposition to expect the worst will find Ayala's voice a tad pinched and almost self-consciously drenched in excessive reverb, which, of course, only calls more attention to one's vocal limitations. But Ayala is a fine technical singer, certainly passable by the standards of tejano/norteño music, so the disc is far from an embarrassment. The real limitation here isn't Ayala but rather his choice of material — which is almost entirely drawn from the Latin singer/songwriter age and borrows most heavily from Leo Dan — and the sequencing: the settings flip haphazardly between conjuntos and mariachis. Granted, Ayala's conjunto here kicks like a mule, never letting the proceedings go completely dead. But after the first stylistic departure from norteño, you get the feeling that Ayala is trying harder to prove something than to make something. The whole disc, ultimately, has the feel of a television talent show. It's competent, for sure, but deliberately not much more than that. ~ J. Chandler, Rovi