100 Best Mexican Contemporary Songs (90-81)

100 Best Mexican Contemporary songs

90

Belanova

Rosa Pastel

Pastel Pink is the color that is associated with traditional femininity, but when Belanova uses this shade to name their song, they do it to confront this ideas of a woman predetermined to be a wife and a mother. Rosa Pastel is the moment of realization that all those fairy tales that we were told as kids don't really correlate with reality, and that relationships have a bitter side that doesn't fit in the happy ending rhetoric. Denise Guerrero's ultra sweet voice, almost the one of a Barbie doll, embodies very well the clashed dreams of somebody who believed in traditional gender roles but now is facing the real complexity of individual selves, those who have too many defects to be a princess or a superhero, and the shiny synths have a melancholic vibe that set a difference between this and the rest of the songs of the band, that tend to be more joyful. Rosa Pastel questions "Where did the button that leads to happiness go?", because letting go of those preconcieved ideas of an easy formula for gender realization hurts, but it will lead us to be stronger and state very clearly that "I don't wanna be that woman, she went to an abyss".

(Pop, 2005)

89

(Indie Rock, 2013)

Little Jesus

Azul

By the end of 2013, a very surprising band stormed in the indie circuit of Mexico, and it largely drew comparisons with Vampire Weekend, because of the mix of intelligent lyrics with feel-good indie rock. Azul starts with a very upbeat complicated base line that almost resembles a norteño melody, but the frantic guitars soon give it a rebellious and mischieving vibe. Even when Santiago Casillas' voice is not the most trained one, it suits the ease of the song, as if the boy next door was singing it and questioning "Who else is going to believe your stories of an upside world?", and then they take us in a rollercoaster ride alternating between pauses and riffs until, at the very end, it explodes in a guitar frenzy. Azul was the introduction to a young band that, overall, is having a lot of fun making their music, but that doesn't mean in any way that they won't take care of the little details while doing it,

88

Kinky

Ejercicio #16

Who would have thought that an exercising routine could become one of the best latin parties? Kinky samples the presenter of a Mexican TV show from the 70s called "Gymnastics in your own Home" and creates a routine of movements that could be a training session, but also could be a very quirky choreography to the acid beats that the band plays. It certainly is Daft Punk's house, but with a local touch, as it also derives from the electronic experimentations of latin bands like Titan and Los Amigos Invisibles, and the trumpets certainly give a warm feeling to this rocktronica beats. Ejercicio #16 is a celebratory fun experience, and you really can get the multicultural mix without it being totally in your face, it stands out on its own without any risk of being labeled as world music, because what Kinky did on their first album is to show how broad are the possibilities of doing original house music that is at the same time local and universal.

(Electronic, 2002)

(Punk Rock, 2011)

87

Candy

El Entierro

Candy's second album, Control, saw the band leaving behind the DIY style that predominates in Mexican punk rock for a most complex and better produced sound (of course that having a local rock legend like Joselo Rangel as a producer helps), and their dirty rock power reaches its peak in El Entierro, that translates as The Burial. And Candy is not only burying their amateur sound, they're also burying many predispositions that had limited what a local punk band could do, the lyrics here are dark and cryptic, rather that a political straightforward message, and they don't let the fury embrace the whole song, they are smart enough to allow a pause where they experiment with surprising instruments (trombone and clarinet in such a dirty song? Hell yeah!) to emulate a band in a funeral march, to later go and explode again. The bass line is repetitive and heavy, almost like a death sentence casted upon us, and while Michael Klotz's voice is shouting truths to us, Valentina Plasa repeats them with a haunted flattened voice, so when they say that "Nothing is like yesterday, I do everything better now", it is clear that they're not just bragging,

86

(Folk, 2009)

Rodrigo Y Gabriela

Hanuman

Up to this day, no other Mexican musician has achieved the international fame and influence like Carlos Santana, but if we're talking about bands that have a well stablished name overseas while being largely ignored in their home country, Rodrigo y Gabriela should be contenders for the top spot in Mexico. In Hanuman, the duo of guitar players pays homage to Santana, acknowledging how much influence he had shaping a latin rock sound, and if they're not trying to copy entirely the style of the psychedelic rock musician, we can feel the same complex structures, just played much faster here. The virtuosism of this duo hits you in the face from the first moments, the flamenco guitars enchant you and take you on an intense trip, where the latin passion floods through the whole length of the track.

85

DLD

Por Siempre

Francisco Familiar might have one of the sexiest voices in Mexican rock, is very deep and with a great personality, so that always gives DLD's songs a lot of character. It also reminds us a lot of Eddie Vedder, and certainly the Pearl Jam spirit lives in this band more than in just the vocals; Por Siempre has the energy of the grunge bands, but it's also infused with the freshness of what some indie bands were doing at the moment, think of Soundgarden meets The Killers. The song opens with an outstanding dual guitar riff, and from then, we are treated to an anthemic song for breaking up after an unhealthy relationship, it acknowledges how much a person could mean to you and still, being without them feels like breathing fresh air again, it's a universal feeling and you can tell when big latin festivals have thousands of people singing at the same time "We only have to understand that nothing lasts forever". It's the lyrics, the bold angular guitar riffs and the sensual voice together what make this track an instant rock favorite.

(Rock, 2009)

84

Neon Indian

Deadbeat Summer

Not everybody knows that indie world sensation Alan Palomo was born in Monterrey, Mexico, and probably that's because his music could be linked more easily with M83 or LCD Soundsystem than with any latin band at the time. Neon Indian jumped very early in the 80s nostalgia and the revival of lo-fi production and bedroom synths that is so widespread right now, and on Deadbeat Summer we can feel the chill vibes that make us remind of the time of cassette mixtapes recorded from the radio with a more than imperfect sound, but this is certainly not a fault in Palomo's first single as Neon Indian, it's a meta-imperfection very controlled that works to create the retro atmosphere, a sentiment that also is shown when he sings "All my dreams reminisce, never thought this time would be like this", and indeed, who would have imagined that the modern kids would be using their high-tech devices to listen to vintage music that longs for the faults in old recordings?

(Synthpop, 2009)

83

Plastilina Mosh

Peligroso Pop

Not that many bands can have as much fun as Plastilina Mosh, and also not that many are that successful at throwing a whole bunch of different styles and influences together, but what they are telling us with Peligroso Pop (Dangerous Pop), is that in popular music everything is valid and the possibilities are infinite in order to create a song that gets stuck in your head, and here we are facing one of Plastilna's most pure pop moments that is achieved my getting together everything that has made the band successful: the rock riffs, the shiny synths, the white boys' sloppy attempt to rap in spanglis, the basic but infectious chorus... it's an improbable pastiche that works to get everybody dancing and satisfied with a pop track that doesn't sound trivial or formulaic at all. Yes, Pop is one of the genres that usually plays safest, but when some bands get out of confort zones, it gets dangerous and electrifying, because edginess doesn't mean that a song has to stop being catchy.

(Synthpop, 2003)

82

Master Vincent Vega

Causa Y Efecto

Mexican rap is having a revival during the mid 10's, and is good to see how the new rappers mix the influences of the likes of Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar with a national reality. After living as an undocumented migrant in the United States for a year, David Ramírez has a lot to say about a millennial latino generation, how much they are growing with a bicultural experience that is exposed to a society that systematically segregates and discriminates against them, so the racial and class issues are presented as the axis that will develop further themes like group friendships, pride, and work. Causa y Efecto is Master Vincent Vega throwing flows about all these themes over very dark synths to tell a personal story, trying to show how much he is an effect of what he has lived, so the chorus arrives in a soul style by saying us that a priest and the devil might have two very different versions to tell about him. It's a bold and inventive work that takes time to embrace rap with other new trends, and giving a new pathway for latin beatmakers.

(Rap, 2016)

81

(Rock, 2004)

Fobia

Hoy Tengo Miedo

Fobia was one of the most important Mexican rock bands in the 90s, but they took a pause of seven years before releasing new music in 2004. Hoy Tengo Miedo (Today I'm Afraid) sees a much mature band, they left behind the cheeky youth days, and now we have men in their late thirties in total control of their craft, but daring to say that they're still afraid of make music and expose themselves, in what might be their most human compositions. They control the slowly building tension and let it explode just at the correct moment, when Leonardo de Lozanne finally realizes that "Not everybody is mean, not everything is wrong", and is a common realization that how much by letting go old feuds and leaving their egos behind, they all can work again together, because none of them has sounded better in any other of their multiple projects as they did with Fobia.