When Romeo Santos reached out to the legends and luminaries of bachata history for his Utopía collaborations album, El Chaval de la Bachata no doubt ranked highly on his list of candidates. Placed second on the record’s track listing, their resulting team-up “Canalla” left little doubt that the man behind the 2007 genre classic “Dónde Están Esos Amigos” hadn’t lost his mojo in the slightest. Coming hot on the heels of that impressive showing, Mil historias finds him as proficient as ever in tugging at the heartstrings to the Santo Domingo rhythm. With more than two decades of discography under his belt, here he deliberately returns to a 1990s tropical sound for inspiration, something evident on cuts including “La Próxima Cita” and the standout “Qué Malo.”