** JOHNNY ALMENDRA Y LOS JOVENES DEL BARRIO, “Reconfirmando,” RMM.

Last year, veteran Neoyorican percussionist Almendra and his new group released”Evolucionando,” one of 1996’s best Latin records. Almendra took the seductive charanga sound (an offspring of the Cuban son with the addition of flute and violins) and gave it a fresh spin by infusing it with touches of rhythm and blues. In doing so, he remained faithful to charanga, but created something invitingly modern.

“Reconfirmando” tries to take the sound a step further, but falls flat. Attempts to go mainstream with English lyrics are plain laughable. And whereas the songs on “Evolucionando” sounded carefree and elegant, there’s a forced quality to this project that makes the acceptance of such an atypical mix a hard pill to swallow.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four (excellent).