Anyone who still has Emir Kusturica’s weird 1993 dramedy “Arizona Dream” in mind will surely also have the congenial soundtrack in their ears, on which Iggy Pop partially sings about a Balkan-inspired folk-rock mishmash. Formed just three years later by singer/guitarist Joey Burns and drummer John Convertino, Calexico evoke a similar atmosphere on the title track and opener of their new studio album – albeit more in their typical Tex-Mex tradition.
Recorded in Tucson, Arizona in the home studio of keyboarder and accordion player Sergio Mendoza, EL MIRADOR doesn’t only build surreal sand castles, but cultivates open-ended boundaries once again. The great “Harness The Wind” (Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam in the background vocals) is reminiscent of hearty fifties melt or the catchy “Then You Might See” with a subtle twang guitar moves onto the terrain of the Flaming Stars.
Elsewhere, “Cumbia del Polvo”, enriched with subtle Electronica elements by Calexico collaborator Camilo Lara, turns the desert into a dance floor and “Liberada” even features additional Cuban splashes of color. Ultimately, however, it’s a song like “Rancho Azul”, which plays hymnically with Americana traditions, that takes you back to these, primarily Robert Mitchum film noirs like “The Big Steal” (1949) or “Where Danger Lives” (1950 ) reserved, American-Mexican in-between world, who have called Calexico their home for just over a quarter of a century.
SIMILAR REVIEWS
Kae Tempest :: The Line Is A Curve
Poetic electro pop that looks inwards.
Picture book :: Yellow is the field
Heavenly dog days in soft popland: The Austrians let the sun in.
Painting :: Painting Is Dead
Experimental pop against false symmetries and other social constraints.
SIMILAR ARTICLES
Stage, benefit & desperation – What role does pop play in the event of war?
The ESC will be a big stage for Ukraine, whose President Volodymyr Zelenskyj will give a speech at the Grammy Awards, samplers will boost solidarity, makeshift idiots want to sell war-themed records and Linus Volkmann, due to the circumstances, refrains from dissing gunslinger. What kind of world do we actually live in? The new pop week.
I want to be part of a men’s movement: Paula’s pop week at a glance
The men’s crisis – for years it has been conjured up by men’s rights activists, columnists, life coaches and other idiots and now it’s really there, just somehow completely different. Paula Irmschler in the new issue of our pop column about Will Smith, Oliver Pocher, Die Toten Hosen and the friendship between Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins.
Bye, bye music journalism, hello molehills: 17 more hits of the epidemic year 2022
Rammstein have a new track out, the Tocotronic record is called “Nie wieder Krieg” and the Hosen are promoting a new Best Of with Marteria… Hey, tell me something I don’t know yet, folks! Okay, deal: In the new pop week, Linus Volkmann got 17 hits from the Musikexpress community.
<!–
–>
<!–
–>