No one gets more empowered by lyrics than Rene Perez (Residente), one of our most creative ‘leadmen’ in music, and on the shortlist for best rapper in the world. The Puerto Rican duo is back promoting “Calma Pueblo”, the first single from their forthcoming October release, the fourth LP in their shining career. The song features The Mars Volta and, while the premise seems interesting, the song is underwhelming to say the least. I’m trying to figure out if this is as bad as “No Hay Nadie Como Tu” (feat. Café Tacvba), but “Calma Pueblo” is disappointing and very boring. Rene seems uninspired lately, at least judging from his awkward and almost shameful (from his side) collaborations with Dante Spineta, Andres Calamaro and the late Mercedes Sosa.Calle 13 is probably one of the few acts that could take on the responsibility of speaking for the people, but to do it in such a bland manner is almost offensive to the band’s ideals on superficiality, “lo que sientes tu lo siento yo, porque yo soy como tu.” The lyrics don’t do much and the music is barely there to serve a purpose instead of detonating corporative chains. “Calma Pueblo” is especially irritating because we’ve seen Calle 13 taking on that high-profile character in marvelous songs such as “Querido FBI” or “La Crema.” Here is hoping the group doesn’t lose its edge, “Calma Pueblo” is minor Calle 13, or better worst, Calle 13 trying to hard to be major. Is this ruining our anticipation of the actual album? Not really. After all, they are a step close to being favorite band.