A Medio Vivir is Ricky Martin's stylistic leap from the swoony crooning of Me Amaras toward Top 40 stardom. While still an essentially romantic recording, this collection dips into rock, gospel, and Latin soul, forming the foundation of the artist's meteoric rise on the charts. Beginning with the sound of ocean waves, A Media Vivir gets going strong with the wailing sax, chorded piano, and gospel-choir backing on the superlative title cut through to the electrified rock of "Bombom de Azucar." Martin's vocals by this point have become more expressive, bombastic, and, handily, manly--the mother of all romance languages catching in his throat in a strangely appealing fashion. Adventurous in its genre hopping, Vivir is uneven, but a welcome departure and expansion from his days of Menudo and languid Latin love songs and a harbinger of what's to come. And if Martin busting a move in the midst of a ring of fire on national television is the listener's speed, then A Media Vivir in all its ragged enthusiasm is just the thing. --Paige La Grone