BROOKVILLE, New York - Growing up in the housing projects in East Harlem in the 1970s, the singer Marc Anthony came to realize early on that “every family’s identity was based on the music they were blaring out their windows.” As he moved about, he recalled recently, he would hear Marvin Gaye coming from one apartment, Ray Barretto from another, the Bee Gees from a third.

At the age of 41, with a dozen CDs to his name, Mr. Anthony remains a child of all those influences, refusing to limit himself to just one. He bounces between records in Spanish and English, and in concert jumps from salsa and freestyle hip-hop to mainstream pop and rock.

Now he’s complicated the mix even further with “Iconos,” an album of Spanish-language romantic ballads popular when he was a boy.

“I’m not a salsa singer who wants to sing in English, and I’m not this American kid who wants to sing Spanish,” he said during an interview at the estate here on Long Island where he lives with his wife of six years, Jennifer Lopez, the actress and singer, and their 2-year-old twins. “My thing is music, period.”

The new record, a break from his crossover offerings, which spent its first two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Latin music chart, is a logical choice. Mr. Anthony was born Marco Antonio Muniz, which happens also to be the name of a popular Mexican singer who his Puerto Rico-born father, a musician and hospital worker, and mother admired along with other balladeers like Juan Gabriel, Jose Jose and Roberto Carlos, all of whom are represented on the record.

“These are the songs we all remember from our infancy onward because our parents listened to them constantly: passionate, emotional songs that we may not have fully understood back then,” said the producer, songwriter and arranger Julio Reyes, who worked on the record with Mr. Anthony. “The challenge is to pay these songs respectful homage while inviting a younger audience to get to know them and feel the same about them as we do.”

But cover albums (“Iconos” contains two new tracks that Mr. Anthony and Mr. Reyes helped write in a melodramatic style similar to the other songs) are often regarded as pauses for artists to consider their next move, and so it may be here. After a detour to play the title role in the movie “El Cantante,” a 2007 biopic about the life and death of the salsa singer Hector Lavoe, Mr. Anthony seems to be at a crossroads.

“He can do whatever he wants - movies, records, live shows, television - because people like him ,” said Leon Ichaso, the director of “El Cantante.”

“But audiences come and go sometimes, so he has to find his footing once again. It is always a risk to go this slow for somebody who is a live wire like Marc, and it seems like he has been marking time.”

“Iconos” is Mr. Anthony’s first album of newly recorded material, other than the “El Cantante” soundtrack, since 2004, an unusually long gap even for him. In part that is because he is meticulous about choosing songs to record: for “Iconos” he started with about 600 candidates, which were winnowed to 45, of which 8 were eventually chosen.

“First you date the songs, and then you get engaged,” he explained. “And then you marry them. They have to stand the test of time, because they are going to be yours for the next 20, 30, 40 years. So you had better choose right.”

Mr. Anthony said he is far along on two other projects. One offers cover versions of pop hits , aimed at his crossover audience; the other is a Spanish-language salsa CD.

Mr. Anthony’s performance on the “Cantante” soundtrack was widely praised.

That increased the public pressure on him to return to the style that made his reputation: At his peak, he was the first solo salsa performer to sell out Madison Square Garden.

“I had to do a salsa album,” he acknowledged. “That’s all I’ve heard.”

In the meantime, Mr. Anthony continues to develop his acting . He is to appear in two episodes of “HawthoRNe,” an American medical drama.

The co-producer of Mr. Anthony’s salsa records, Sergio George, has learned to be patient with his friend’s tendency to jump around from one style and form of expression to another.

“I think if he sticks to one thing he’s doomed,” Mr. George said. “He needs to continue exploring. He’s a magnetic performer in whatever he does, so if it doesn’t work as well, the public will forgive him.”


By LARRY ROHTER