Nonė Gómez “La Edad De Otro Mundo” (p)2019 Clifford Records
I’ve tried to dissect this short album multiple times but every time I tried the only conclusion I got was that short forms didn't fit the genre perfectly.
These are the four songs with simple and distinct melodies that can be allocated to power pop category. A melody a song. No drastic rhythm changes. No complicated arrangements. No considerable shifts in dynamics. Neither polished nor lo-fi. Maybe an Echo And The Bunnymen influence. And I can’t escape the feeling it all might work much better if the supply wasn’t so scarce.
Colorado "Nuestros Circuitos" (p)2020 Clifford Records
I like "Nuestros Circuitos" but I don't fall in love with it, and I'm so sorry for not being able to explain why. For me this album is a solid four out of five but I do understand that it's got all the ingredients for better estimation. It's got strong melodies and elaborated instrumental parts. It manages to appear as the case of 'the sum is greater than its parts' where the parts are indie pop and dreampop and the sum is neither of them. But the arrow set to my heart slightly misses it.
Cohesion is always a thing – especially when it doesn’t slip into sameness – though the history of music knows a lot of great albums that cover the vast array of genres, styles and writing techniques. Therefore, diversity is a thing that matters as well.
Loudly’s “Elfactorgrotesco” is far from cohesive as the songs on the album considerably differ one from another. Actually, within the first six tracks here we’ve got: a song with quiet verse and loud stadium-size chorus (no traces of grunge or post grunge detected though); a bouncing indie rock track with angular rhythms; an alt-country song that in terms of sound melds Niño Y Pistola with Lori Meyers; a slowburner that halfway blooms into the huge hard-rocking coda; a quiet drunken ballad; and a song that incorporates castanets. And it’s only a half of the album! The second half has its own stylistic fluctuations as well. I’m not going to dissect and categorize every song but you hardly find two identical tracks in there. The only constant in the mix is the impressive, emotional vocals of the frontman Juantonio – the instrumental “Aokigahara” aside.
Fortunately, it all doesn’t sound like compilation album – rather it sounds like the band searching for their own way. When you get familiar with the album, the ‘what comes next’ question mark slips out of your head and you start simply enjoying every single song as there’s a lot to enjoy here. At the end of the day “Elfactorgrotesco” is the diversified emotionally rich solid rock record with the good potential to grow onto the people.
The best tracks: La Mayor Catastrofe, Nada Volvera A Ser Igual, Si Me Ves, Elfactorgrotesco
