Aventura's 'Last' album may be their swan song but meanwhile they have the year's top seller

Tuesday, August 4th 2009, 5:42 PM

Max, Romeo, Lenny and Henry of Aventura.

‘Crossover” has long been a loaded term for Latin music acts that struggle to balance remaining true to their core audiences and broadening their appeal.

For the urban bachata sensation Aventura, though, the term is just about irrelevant.

“Once we started doing music, we were already a crossover,” said lead singer Anthony (Romeo) Santos. “We brought our own style to bachata, all that we heard and liked growing up in the Bronx.”

Aventura’s inflection of bachata with R&B smoothness, hip-hop edge and lyrics beyond the sad-sack love stories at the heart of the more traditional form of the genre is an unlikely formula that has been gaining traction far beyond the group’s peer group of second-generation Dominican youth.

The quartet’s latest release, “The Last,” debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Album chart and has remained in that spot for seven weeks running.