Marcriá

Marcriá
Studio album by RaiNao
Released	May 25, 2026 (2026-05-25)
Genres	Reggaeton Latin pop R&B
Length	47:47
Language	Spanish
Label	Rimas
RaiNao chronology
Capicú (2024) Marcriá (2026)
Singles from Marcriá
"sofocón" Released: May 7, 2025 "GRIS" Released: May 6, 2026

Marcriá is the second studio album by the Puerto Rican singer RaiNao. It was released on May 25, 2026, through Rimas Entertainment, two years after her debut studio album, Capicú (2024). RaiNao and her principal collaborator Wiso Rivera led its production, working with a rotating group of co-producers. The album features Omara Portuondo, Cultura Profética, Andy Montañez, El Laberinto del Coco, Solo Fernández, and Frido Vargas.

RaiNao conceived Marcriá as a sequence of "sensory treatments" inspired by attending a school for children with visual impairments during her childhood. Its title combines the Spanish word malcriada (a spoiled or ill-mannered woman) with a stylized expression meaning "raised by the sea". Musically, it expands her pop, R&B, and reggaeton foundation through salsa, Latin jazz, bomba, plena, bolero, Brazilian funk, and Cuban guaguancó. The songs follow an emotional progression from infatuation and euphoria toward rejection, anger, and mortality.

The singles "sofocón" and "GRIS" preceded the album, whose visual campaign included color visualizers, song-by-song microstories, and the companion short film Oídos que ven GRIS. RaiNao also promoted it with an NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert. The album received positive reviews from critics, who praised the record's detailed arrangements and its synthesis of contemporary production with Caribbean traditions. It appeared on midyear best-album lists from the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Rolling Stone en Español, and Variety.

Background and development

RaiNao released her debut studio album, Capicú, in 2024. Its follow-up arrived during a period of wider exposure for her, after she featured on Bad Bunny's "Perfumito Nuevo" from his 2025 album Debí Tirar Más Fotos and performed at several shows during his San Juan concert residency. After completing Capicú, RaiNao initially concentrated on live performance. She later said that this emphasis had disconnected her from purposeful, structured creation, although it also allowed her to recover from the anger and emotional instability she associated with the earlier album. She characterized Marcriá as a more natural product of the personal changes that followed, including the end of unhealthy relationships. She developed the album over approximately two years.

The concept originated in RaiNao's memories of attending a specialized elementary school for children with visual impairments in Santurce, Puerto Rico, where she was one of a small number of sighted pupils. Her mother had enrolled her to take part in the community and assist classmates and teachers. As an adult, RaiNao began examining memories that she had previously kept private. Instead of making a documentary, as members of her team had suggested, she devised what she called sensory treatments: named combinations of colors, tastes, textures, emotions, natural elements, and places that transported her back to individual experiences. Those treatments first became brief narratives and then songs. She intended the record to acknowledge communities of people with visual impairments and other disabilities, as well as the school in Santurce.

The title has two related meanings. Malcriada can describe a woman considered ill-mannered or spoiled; Juan J. Arroyo of the Los Angeles Times connected the term more specifically to women who answer back and reject submission. The stylized spelling Marcriá can also be read as "sea-raised" or "raised by the sea" and links the project to her Puerto Rican upbringing. She described the Caribbean Sea as her safe space and water as the element that bound the album's personal memories to its music.

Recording and production

With one exception, RaiNao wrote or co-wrote and co-produced every track: Frido Vargas wrote and performs "mareo". Wiso Rivera co-produced 15 of the 16 tracks and handled recording and mixing across the album. Numerous producers contributed to individual songs, while Rafferty Santiago shared mixing duties and Colin Leonard mastered the record. RaiNao also played saxophone and percussion.

During the year before release, RaiNao took intensive vocal lessons and came to treat her voice as an arranging instrument. Most of the album's brass and other instrumental melodies began as lines she sang rather than played. She and Rivera transcribed those lines into scores and reassigned them to instruments; when she wanted the expressive effect of a trombone without lyrics, for example, she first sang the desired part. RaiNao specified particular vocal sounds and instruments but generally allowed the producers to experiment within the atmosphere suggested by each sensory treatment.

RaiNao had listened to Omara Portuondo and Andy Montañez since childhood and wanted to preserve their voices within a new project, while Cultura Profética had been a formative influence during her adolescence. After Portuondo's social-media account followed RaiNao, she contacted it with a demo of "dandovueltas...". Portuondo's son invited the production team to Cuba, where they recorded the singer at her home during a period of electrical outages and shortages on the island. RaiNao also set aside complete tracks for emerging acts, continuing a practice from Capicú. "mareo" was Vargas's first released song. RaiNao included it despite reservations from her label because she considered it part of the album's "world."

Music and lyrics

Pitchfork characterized Marcriá as pop and R&B and described it as an expansion of RaiNao's reggaeton-rooted style into salsa, Latin jazz, Brazilian funk, Cuban guaguancó, and bolero. Laia Garcia-Furtado of Harper's Bazaar noted electronic beats, layered choruses, salsa rhythms, plena bass lines, bomba drums and panderos, and jazz passages led by saxophone. RaiNao framed the combination as part of a continuous sensory and emotional journey. She described the sequence as beginning with deception, turning toward dance, euphoria, and the desire for love, and then descending into rejection, repetition, anger, and death.

Apple Music characterized the opening "teaser", which introduces the brighter part of the emotional arc, as atmospheric perreo. "GRIS", one of only two tracks written before the album's concept was established, was produced by RaiNao, Tainy, Koji Kose, and Rivera and includes a tranquil handpan part. RaiNao had sent the song to Tainy for possible use by another artist but reclaimed it while structuring Marcriá, believing that no other song represented water as effectively. The arrangement of "(toco madera y te beso)" develops sparse congas and cuíca into a mixture of cuatro and salsa piano, while "mariposas en el estómago" pairs El Laberinto del Coco's percussion with bomba-influenced funk. "sofocón" combines RaiNao's vocals with bomba percussion and lyrics that refer to Lajas and La Parguera.

The central collaborations broaden the album's generational and geographic scope. Portuondo joins RaiNao over the salsa and samba arrangement of "dandovueltas...", a song about a cyclical relationship and the recovery of personal agency. "dame la verde" features Cultura Profética vocalist Willy Rodríguez over claves and subdued synthesizers resembling lap steel, followed by Vargas's merengue-influenced "mareo". Later, "tornasol" features Dominican band Solo Fernández, and "ODIO A TU NOVIA" moves from strings and electric guitar into a darker perreo passage after an extended pause.

The relationship narratives reflect RaiNao's experience as a queer woman. She told Billboard that this perspective entered her writing naturally rather than as a separate representational decision, and argued that the music industry had historically created unnecessary fear around explicit queer storytelling. Rodriguez interpreted "ODIO A TU NOVIA", in which RaiNao directs her anger toward another woman during a love triangle, as an unusual interruption of the singer's otherwise self-assured outlook.

Near the end, "cántaro" turns the record toward mortality. RaiNao based its brass arrangement on a vocal sample and recorded her saxophone for one of her own projects for the first time; the instrumentation also includes bassoon, harp, trombone, and a plena tumbadero. Montañez sings a traditional chorus commonly associated with bomba musician Félix Alduén, although RaiNao noted that its authorship may predate him. The song applies the literary concept of the death of the author to releasing an album: once listeners receive the work, its meaning no longer belongs exclusively to its creator. The closing title track incorporates RaiNao's recitation of a poem by Puerto Rican poet Angelamaría Dávila from her 1966 collection Homenaje al ombligo. RaiNao had considered adapting the poem into an interlude called "Garabato", but retained it in fuller form after deciding that it summarized the project.

Artwork and short film

Green is the album's predominant visual color. RaiNao associated it with both her emerald birthstone and an emerald ring she received when she graduated from the school for visually impaired children; a small green orb appears on the cover and the color continues through the music videos. Water provides the other recurring image. RaiNao treated the sea as a safe space and water as the element connecting her Caribbean upbringing to the album's visual and musical world.

Before completing the songs, RaiNao wrote a sequence of microstories based on the album. She later published them as track-by-track videos alongside color visualizers and a guided meditation. Released on her YouTube channel on May 9, the 13-minute companion short film Oídos que ven GRIS was written by RaiNao, directed by Kemel Jamis, photographed by Franklin Ricart, and edited by María Celeste Garrahan. It combines narration with ambient frequencies and sound design derived from the album. Its imagery progresses toward an underwater transformation that leads into "GRIS".

Release and promotion

RaiNao performed "sofocón" for the German performance platform ColorsxStudios on April 28, 2025. Rimas released its studio version as the album's first single on May 7. In the Val Vega-directed music video, RaiNao emerges from the sea wrapped in plastic.

The second single, "GRIS", followed on May 6, 2026. On May 20, RaiNao made her debut on NPR Music's Tiny Desk Concert series. The ensemble performed without a conventional drum kit, using Puerto Rican percussion and arrangements that crossed jazz, R&B, bomba, plena, salsa, and reggaeton; the set included "dandovueltas..." five days before the album's release. Rimas released the 16-track album digitally on May 25.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Maxazine	8/10
Pitchfork	8.0/10

Marcriá received generally positive reviews from music critics. Tatiana Lee Rodriguez of Pitchfork called it an immersive expansion of RaiNao's alternative sound and praised both its thematic range and compositional precision. She found the arrangements unusually detailed for contemporary urbano, identifying "(toco madera y te beso)" and "mariposas en el estómago" as particular examples of the record's collaborative instrumentation.

For JazzTimes, A. D. Amorosi characterized the album as intimate and idiosyncratic jazz shaped by what he called space-reggaeton. He contrasted the samba and bossa nova-influenced "sofocón" and "dandovueltas..." with the busier backgrounds of "ODIO A TU NOVIA" and "cántaro". Jan Vranken of Maxazine likewise praised the cohesion of the guaguancó, bomba, jazz, and reggaeton elements. He singled out "dandovueltas..." as the highlight and used "tornasol" to illustrate the album's modern production, ultimately calling Marcriá the strongest Latin American album released in 2026 up to that point.

In midyear commentary, Jem Aswad of Variety compared the album's ambition and multi-genre construction to Rosalía's Motomami, while distinguishing Marcriá as a less confrontational synthesis of Caribbean traditions and electronic production. Noah Schaffer of The Boston Globe highlighted its emotional directness, textures, colors, and placement of veteran collaborators in unfamiliar settings.

Accolades

Midyear lists

Publication	List	Rank	Ref.
The Boston Globe	The 20 Best Albums of 2026 (So Far)	Unranked
Los Angeles Times (De Los)	Latin Albums You Need to Hear	Unranked
Rolling Stone en Español	Best Albums of 2026 So Far	27
Variety	Best Albums of 2026 So Far	Unranked

Track listing

Credits adapted from Qobuz and Apple Music.

Marcriá track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"teaser"	Naomi Ramírez Rivera (RaiNao)	RaiNao Wiso Rivera	2:12
2.	"GRIS"	Ramírez	RaiNao Tainy Rivera Koji Kose	3:01
3.	"(toco madera y te beso)"	Ramírez	RaiNao Slow Jamz Rivera Ailish F. Quiñones	3:10
4.	"mariposas en el estómago" (featuring El Laberinto del Coco)	Ramírez Héctor Barez	RaiNao Barez Rivera Barba Blanca Frido Vargas	3:40
5.	"sofocón"	Ramírez	RaiNao Rivera David B Orteez Noize	2:26
6.	"dandovueltasdandovueltasdandovueltasdandovueltasdandovueltasdandovueltasdandovueltasdandovueltasdandovueltasdandovueltasdandovueltasdandovueltas" (featuring Omara Portuondo)	Ramírez	RaiNao Rivera Barba Blanca	3:24
7.	"dame la verde" (featuring Cultura Profética)	Ramírez Willy Rodríguez	RaiNao Rivera Brandon Cores Vargas Gabo Lugo	4:17
8.	"mareo" (performed by Frido Vargas)	Frido Vargas	Vargas Cores	2:48
9.	"へ( •́ ‸ •̀) ʋ"	Ramírez Vargas	RaiNao Vargas Rivera	1:00
10.	"track5"	Ramírez	RaiNao Rivera Jomar Santana Quimera Music	3:00
11.	"tornasol" (featuring Solo Fernández)	Ramírez Giancarlo Rojas	RaiNao Rojas Rivera Ricardo Montilla Freddy Nuñez	3:01
12.	"ODIO A TU NOVIA"	Ramírez	RaiNao Rivera Jota Rosa Albert Hype Taiko	4:36
13.	"Chamberi"	Ramírez	RaiNao Rivera Cores Giova de las Águilas	3:06
14.	"ε=┌(;・_・)┘"	Ramírez	RaiNao Rivera Giova de las Águilas Barba Blanca	1:53
15.	"cántaro" (featuring Andy Montañez)	Ramírez	RaiNao Rivera Jota Rosa Albert Hype Taiko	3:21
16.	"Marcriá"	Ramírez	RaiNao Rivera	2:52
Total length:				47:47

Notes

• The title of track 6 repeats "dandovueltas" twelve times; it is abbreviated as "dandovueltas...".
• "cántaro" incorporates a traditional chorus associated with Félix Alduén.
• "Marcriá" incorporates a recitation from Dávila's Homenaje al ombligo.

Personnel

Credits are adapted from Qobuz, the Los Angeles Times, and El Nuevo Día.

Musicians

• RaiNao – lead vocals (tracks 1–7 and 9–16), saxophone (track 15), percussion
• El Laberinto del Coco – featured performer (track 4)
• Omara Portuondo – featured vocals (track 6)
• Cultura Profética – featured performer (track 7)
• Frido Vargas – lead vocals (track 8)
• Solo Fernández – featured performer (track 11)
• Andy Montañez – featured vocals (track 15)
• Luis "Lagarto" Figueroa – tumbadero (track 15)

Technical

• Wiso Rivera – recording, mixing
• Rafferty Santiago – mixing; surround mixing (track 6)
• Colin Leonard – mastering
• Edgar Segarra – recording (track 8)
• Giancarlo Rojas – recording (track 11)
• Emanuel Santana – additional recording (track 15)