100 Best Mexican Contemporary Songs (50-41)

100 Best Mexican Contemporary songs

50

Quiero Club feat. Jorge González

Minutos De Aire

At times very eccentric, and at times very club oriented, but one thing is sure about Quiero Club: they do music to have a great time. It is impossible not to love the quirky Minutos de Aire (Minutes of Air), with a melody line that blurs the limit between radio-friendly and child song, but so effective that one can just start moving the head and the feet at its compass. They enrolled Chilean cult figure Jorge González (from Los Prisioneros) to duet with their own Priscilla González (not related to him) and they just throw verses that might or might not have a relationship between them, but assembled sound like an statement against boring codes of ordinary rhyming. Above all, Minutos de Aire is a song that reminds us of the 90s teen pop, with its bouncing synths and their "oh oh, uo oh oh's", but it's more a parody (think MGMT) rather than a revival, because even if the surface looks bubbly and silly, what lies beneath is a very well thought track that also takes cues from new wave and twee indie to create an exhilarating pop moment that is pure joy and good vibes.

(Indie Pop, 2009)

49

(Rock, 2008)

Jaguares

Entre Tus Jardines

If you ask any Mexican which is the biggest rock band of their country, you'll get one of two answers: Café Tacvba or Caifanes. Both of them were the Mexican foundations over where the 80's and 90's "Rock En Tu Idioma" movement stands, but if Café Tacvba managed to produce a few good things in the new century, Caifanes changed its name to Jaguares (for legal reasons) in 1996, and from then it was clear that it was a band falling in disgrace, so it was a relief that the almost sacred name of "Caifanes" wasn't degraded to what Saúl Hernández and company did afterwards. But, in 2008, a revelation came to Hernández and he made his bandmates to listen to all of their previous albums to don't repeat whatever they were doing, and 45 finally gave us a new path for the band, except for the lyrics, because Hernández refused to let go of his Mayan animism that sounded very dated. Entre tus Jardines (Inside your Gardens), if it's slightly disappointing in the lyrics, it is overly rewarding in the sound: it's urgent, it's dark, it's almost as if they remembered the passion that Joy Division inspired to them in the 80's and had a new desire to do exciting things. Listening to this track reminds us why Alfonso André is one of the best drum players in Mexico.

48

Torreblanca

Roma

This one might probably be known by a vast majority of Mexican population even if they never heard of the band who is responsible for it, since the largest phone company of the country used it not only in their advertisements (that were everywhere) but also when you called somebody instead of the intermittent waiting beep, so it's not surprise that if you play it, some people will, by instinct, reach for they mobile phone.

Roma is the quintessential Torreblanca song, baroque pop with jazz touches in a very catchy tune with simple but effective lyrics, it diversifies what indie latin music had to offer by including a big catalogue of instruments, it starts with piano mixed with some Christmas-y bells, and then adds the bass and the battery with some beautiful accents of trumpet, sax and trombone. It's part Arcade Fire, part La La Land, and part Café Tacvba, but it's not surprise since Quique Rangel, from the latter band, produced their album, and made sure that the final notes of Roma held more than a vague similarity with El Baile y El Salón, perhaps the most romantic song in Mexican rock.

(Indie Pop, 2011)

47

Fobia

No Eres Yo

When Fobia took a break in 97, its members embarked on several different projects: from the very unsuccessful solo effort of lead singer Leonardo de Lozanne, to drums player Jay de la Cueva's weird project Moderatto that was meant to be a joke but gained huge popularity. Fobia's comeback album, Rosa Venus, left two things very clear: that all of them sound much better together than in any other project, and that Jay has spent years wasting his talent doing mediocre music. No Eres Yo (You Are Not Me) is Fobia at their most glam rock moment, grandiloquent as Muse at their best times, with potent energy that flows in the guitars, the synths and the suave performance of Leonardo de Lozane; but the real beast in this track is Jay de la Cueva at the drums, playing with electric virtuosity, surfing with ease every evolution of the melody, giving structure and power to it. We can only made attempts to understand why is it that this brilliant musician is performing the worst pop music in his side project (that at this point, let's be honest, it's more than his main one), but he might just look at us and tell us "You don't understand, because you are not me".

(Rock, 2003)

46

(Folk, 2003)

Marco Antonio Solís

Más Que Tu Amigo

The big diversity of latin folk styles, and the fact that the target group for them (working class) prefers to enjoy them rather than analyze them created the very mexican term of "grupero music" to throw in a single bag all the varieties of latin folk, rather than being a single style. This term has also permitted that folk artists can navigate very easily between different genres, and even mixing them, without worrying too much in sacrificing their public. Marco Antonio Solís, might be one of the central figures of the grupero scene, with a career that has lasted over four decades, and even if his biggest hits were in the ranchero ballad style (like the amazing "Si No Te Hubieras Ido"), at times he explores different horizons, like cumbia in his 2003 hit Más Que Tu Amigo (More Than Your Friend), and oh boy, he nailed it! The orchestration is on point and structures a base rhythm that will definitely have everybody dancing, then he goes reciting affectionate verses that are accentuated by the brass instruments, where one verse flows into next one in a sexy and suggestive way. With all that, we can forgive the few vices of popular folk that it still carries, specially the use of that awful female screams that invite to dance, because a song of this intensity is an invitation in itself.

45

Neon Indian

Slumlord

In his quest for synth pop domination, Alan Palomo moved from Monterrey to Texas to New York, and the life in the latter city heavily influenced his album Vega Intl. Night School. One of the most expensive cities to live in the world, and probably the one that'll give you less value for money, New York is hoarded with people who know how to abuse the free-market and demand very high rents for living in a rat hole for everyone who wants to live the Sinatra dream. Palomo tackles this social issue channeling The Grateful Dead's Shakedown Street, with psychedelic vibes, but sparkles neon 80's futurism to it. After almost 50 seconds of synth introduction, the groove gets everybody dancing while Palomo sings about the real-estate market that abuse minorities in a city where "is easy to be the miser when no one's the wiser". Slumlord sounds like that night out you can afford yourself in the city that doesn't sleep, before coming back to a reality where there are bills to pay for an apartment that is falling to pieces; but in spite that evil landlord, Neon Indian can shine like a contemporary Tony Manero.

(Synthpop, 2015)

44

Motel

1, 2, 3

Motel might be the Mexican equivalent to Maroon 5 or Matchbox Twenty, a rock/pop band with a big fan base, but with an style that it's too inoffensive to really matter. And if to that, you add the factor that the lead singer, Rodrigo Dávila, is son of one the most infamous TV gossip woman in the country, critics just couldn't really took the band seriously. Their two first albums are mostly soft rock with some emo touches that at times flirted with indie rock, but that never fully dared to go to a more alternative ground, except on 1, 2, 3, which might be the only song that they could really be proud of. Here, we're facing a dynamic band with an urgent sound, that remind us of the best tracks of Jet or Kaiser Chiefs. For the first time, Dávila takes his voice out of the lightspot, letting the music be the star and just accompanying until it explodes in a great guitar solo. It was the glimpse of the band that could have been and never was (right now they could be considered more a boyband than a rockband), so we're not sure if it was a strike of luck or if they have a secret talented side, but 1, 2, 3 is a complex and vibrant track that reflects youth frenzy at its best.

(Rock, 2007)

43

(Electronic, 2003)

Fase

Tania

If basic electronic bands have been widely absent in Mexican music, more complex derivations, like trip hop, were almost inexistent. Even if their only album isn't fully trip-hop, Tania, the lead single, was a surprise in terms of how different it was to everything that was produced at that moment in the country, it was even beyond similar synth pop bands like Belanova or Sussie 4, it contained elevated dub and drum n'bass elements, besides of a sax as the only organic sound. The sad story of a waitress that keeps waiting for his loved one is just an excuse to this acid experience, full of textures and ambients, that at its best is dreamy, and at its worst it's pure suffocation. Of course is far from what Portishead or Massive Attack reached, but the simple fact that somebody even dared to take the step and make some experiments with this style, with no local references to look at, it's cause of celebration, but Tania also has its own merits, and this incessant rhythm achieved an unexpected popularity in commercial radio and TV, something that alternative bands of the early 00's rarely got. In spite of it all, the project disappeared quickly along with the brief attempt of having a Mexican trip hop scene.

42

(Rock, 2000)

Julieta Venegas

Hoy No Quiero

If you ask about Julieta Venegas right now, people will picture her as a singer songwriter of soft pop songs, something inoffensive and sweet like Natalie Imbruglia or Michelle Branch; but back at the rise of the new millennium she was the most ferocious side of female Mexican rock. Former lead singer of the ska band Tijuana No!, Venegas started her solo career in the late 90s with a wide acclaim for her vibrant style that mixed dark rock sounds with Mexican norteño folk (her single De Mis Pasos was The Cure meets Los Tigres del Norte), and her second album, Bueninvento, just confirmed that we had a new local rock queen. Hoy No Quiero opens with Julieta scratching her acoustic guitar with rage and singing with bitterness about the anguishes of a broken person with strong statements like "I've been found dead" and "I've been sold and don't know what the price was and who paid it", right then the song really breaks and the full band starts rocking all together. And then, she dares to say that dangerous word "No", she states that she isn't willing to take bullshit anymore, not this day, she doesn't want it, she is en empowered strong figure that antagonizes with the soft pop songwriter that three years later released an anodyne album called "Sí" (Yes).

41

(Electronic, 2006)

Kinky

A Dónde Van Los Muertos

Mexico has a unique way to see the death, it has a festive tone in it, and the fact that the most important local celebration is the Day of the Dead, where people gather to joyously remember those who are gone, speaks books. Artists from all disciplines have approached this special relationship with death, and it is a constant element of both, the popular and the high art, and thanks to Frida Kahlo, the world has also made this association between Mexico and the merry death. Kinky also approached this topic with their mix of electronic, rock and folk, and they recall Mexican popular legends that explain "Where does death people go?" while the synths, the guitar and the accordion bounce together to set the mood to this ritualistic party where the female flat chorus voices are the guest ghosts that come to dance with the living ones. Kinky is the postmodern death celebration, one that has the same elements of traditional folklore adapted to a millennial lifestyle (accordion is the sugar skulls, synths are the coloured glass coat that lets them ready for Instagram), but amidst this party they still add their own poetics when declare that "death is like swimming through the world without having to emerge to breath".