Ever since their 2017 single “Mi Mala” hit, the Venezuelan duo Mau y Ricky have remained righteously entertaining artists in Latin pop. Following 2024’s Hotel Caracas, a genre-hopping exploration that incorporated styles like merengue and música mexicana, their immediate follow-up is a more concise yet no less progressive effort. Embedded in the exponentially expanding global footprint for pop music, LA LLAVE unlocks even more sonic chambers for the pair. Unlike the prior album, this one more eagerly reaches for features from some similarly skillful guests in order to reach its goals. From the tropical reveries of “samaná” with Danny Ocean and Yorghaki to the swirling throwback thrills of “noche de luna” with their countrymen in LAGOS, they build beauteous musical worlds populated by eminently relatable sentiments and vocal harmonies. They switch things up with ROBI on the ever-evolving “claroqno,” dig deep for the thematically tenser Boza team-up “voltaje,” and dive straight into the ELENA ROSE duet “agua.”