Café Tacuba Albums (8)
What The Critics Say
Whatever the logic, whether it be a stopgap between studio albums, record company ambition, or the band's own desire simply to see a fine album revisited in a new context, the 2009, ten-year anniversary re-release of Café Tacuba's brilliant Yo Soy (a palindrome that is pronounced the same way backwards as forwards) is a cause célèbre. This set was half of a package that included another whole album, the wildly experimental Reves. It was Yo Soy, however, that garnered the hit singles "La Locomotora" and "La Muerte Chiquita," and helped earn the band a Latin Grammy. Yo Soy is chock-full of the kinds of catchy, quirky, truly unique songs that have made Café Tacuba a brand name in Latin music in general., and a favorite of American critics. Tight, stop-on-a-dime changes and melodic shifts are woven into tightly knit songs where standard rock instrumentation is expanded upon with the use of folk instruments. From straight-up modern rock bordering on punk, to gorgeous sons interpreted for a new generation, to norteño ballads and danzons, to sprawling yet gorgeously produced and dreamy neo-psychedelic numbers with stellar arrangements, this set is a winner top to bottom. One more thing: while there are a total of 15 songs on the record, they are divided into nearly 52 tracks that play seamlessly, offering another example of Café Tacuba's endearing but bent sense of humor. This is an excellent introduction to the band's music if you've never heard them before. For fans, this remastered version sounds better than ever and comes with entirely new artwork. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Since the mid-'90s, every new album release by Café Tacuba was an event, especially in the band's native Mexico. This was partly because of the band's considerable renown and their reputation for evolving stylistically, but also because new album releases were few and far between. Like Cuatro Caminos (2003) before it, Sino was eagerly awaited by fans of Café Tacuba, the world's most recognized torchbearer of rock en español. The beloved band took their time with both albums -- a gaping four years of time for each -- yet the wait was worthwhile, as is usually the case with Café Tacuba: the resulting music is abundantly creative, and enriched with fresh musical ideas and well-developed songs. The comparisons end there, though. Whereas Cuatro Caminos was a bold step into the realm of digital-age production -- a critically hailed experimental rock album infused with the mannerisms of electronica, it drew frequent comparisons to Radiohead's Kid A/Amnesiac work -- Sino finds Café Tacuba scaling back much of the eccentricity of their past several studio albums: the electronica mannerisms of Cuatro Caminos are scaled back, as is the overt experimentation of Revés/Yo Soy (1999), the inside-out genre-twisting of Avalancha de Éxitos (1996), and the White Album-like sprawl of Re (1994). In a way, the scaled-back direction of Sino brings Café Tacuba full circle to their debut, Café Tacuba (1992), for both albums emphasize concise, melodic songcraft above all. There's a distinct lack of humor to be found on Sino, though, as the rather straight-faced, existential tone of the album is a world removed from Café Tacuba's early, often zany work. The band's contrariness remains, albeit there's a more mature, serious approach that relies on lyrical thoughtfulness rather than smart-aleck jokery. The music of Sino is surprisingly straightforward -- comprised almost exclusively of vocals, guitars, bass, drums, and keyboards -- and in general, the songs are melodic, guitar-driven, anchored by strong choruses, and tend to wrap up in three to four minutes. The big exception is album centerpiece "Volver a Comenzar," a majestic song that clocks in at nearly eight minutes and rides a soaring keyboard riff straight out of the mid-'80s, and also the album-closing "Gracias," which clocks in at six minutes and careens wildly toward the end as the music finally unravels after an hour of precise songcraft. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Recorded in live in Mexico in October of 2004, Café Tacuba's Un Viaje (A Trip) serves as a delightful and woolly retrospective on where the band has been since it began recording in 1992, ushering in the rock en Español movement. Offered in various editions, the double-CD version contains 29 tracks that literally span Café Tacuba's jaunty, groundbreaking career. Jumping forward and back across their catalog, Un Viaje includes no less that half of their self-titled debut, along with three or four tracks each from every subsequent release. Also delightful are the inclusions of live readings of covers from Avalancha de Éxitos (Café Tacuba's tribute recording to those who influenced them): "Chilanga Banda," "Como de Extranda," "Ojalá Que Llueva Café," and "No Controles." It's true that a live Café Tacuba offering will only likely appeal to die-hard fans of the band in the United States, Mexico, and Latin America. However, Café Tacuba have been trying like the devil to win English-speaking American audiences for years with their innovative brand of uncompromising, utterly ingenious rock & roll, to little success. So why not give one to the fans? If you dig these guys, this one will not disappoint -- crowd noise notwithstanding. If you don't, or haven't heard of them, you have no idea what you're missing. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Not the Mexican Beatles, Beastie Boys, Radiohead, or any of the other bands that the lazy rock press in America has dubbed Café Tacuba, this is the Mexican Café Tacuba. Furthermore, despite an obnoxious blurb from a music magazine pasted on the outside of the disc, Cuatro Caminos is not the "Rock en Español Kid A." Kid A isn't this good. On Café Tacuba's fifth full-length album, and first for Universal/MCA, the group characteristically pulls out all the stops and makes some of the most anarchic, loopy, and delightfully accessible music in its 14-year history. Musically, the Tacubas are as wild and varied as ever, utilizing any and every available rock, pop, folk, and post-punk soundscape treatment available, blending them all with mind-bending ferocity, vision, humor, and intelligence, and they create not a pastiche, but an entirely new kind of rock & roll that is virtually unclassifiable -- thank God. Longtime producer Gustavo Santaolalla and engineer Anibal Kerpel are here as always, but they are aided and abetted by Dave Fridmann of Flaming Lips fame and Andrew Weiss of Ween. The expansion doesn't water down the sound, but makes it more texturally and atmospherically elastic without losing any of the gleefully hooky, aggressive raw-edged rock that's made them infamous. Over 14 tracks, listeners (gringos especially) will be wondrously dislocated inside their own rock discourse, hearing references and influences fleet by before they can be named, or turned so far inside out that the only way to go is back on themselves. While Cuatro Caminos (Four Roads) is ambitious, it is also punchy and full of swagger, tough soul, anthemic choruses, and sweat, flip-flopping rock & roll history, Latin folk styles, and postmodern sonics and production techniques into a construct that is at once fluid, provocative, and delightfully, wickedly funny -- and this isn't necessarily the lyrical content, but the music itself. The first single, "Eo," about a wacky soundman who makes people delirious with joy to the point of dancing to exhaustion, is full of sputtering fiery pop/rock hooks and punky edges, but nonetheless turns on a chorus made of nearly chanted lyrics, bringing everything back to the ground before kicking it loose again. Sounds found, manufactured, treated, and otherwise waft through the rock & roll mix, seemingly guided by producers inspired by the gods of rock yesteryear, but rebellious enough to stretch time and space in their own way. Simply put, there is no album, not even in Café Tacuba's own catalog, that is remotely like Cuatro Caminos. As pointed out by the band's biographer, the only record that can be cited as a reference, not for sound or music but in terms of reckless adventure and sustained effort, is XTC's long-ago album Go 2. The Tacubas have reinvented themselves as a band once again by changing all the rules of the game of songwriting and making records. This isn't some artsy, pretentious mishmash of intellectual crap full of inside jokes. This is dirty, raucous, greasy, innocently wild, soulful, and raggedly elegant rock & roll that happens to be art because of its originality, energy, and guts. This is a serious candidate for rock record of the year. Cuatro Caminos is as brave as Zapata's revolution and as much fun as an electrified Latin son band playing the Clash and Chuck Berry at the same time. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
'Avalancha de Éxitos'
Release Date 11/5/1996
Tracks 8
Label WEA International
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
For Re, Café Tacuba experimented with different styles and sounds, resulting in one of the most wildly varied releases of the '90s. "El Ciclón" is a clavinet-driven funk track that echoes Billy Preston, while "Esa Noche" is a tender ranchero ballad. The raucous "El Borrego," which simultaneously mocks and salutes other Mexican rock acts (Maldita Vecindad gets a name-check), could give Ministry a run for their money in the electro-metal department. If there is a flaw, it's that the band's reach sometimes exceeds its grasp. The album occasionally seems too ambitious, and the songwriting could stand to be a bit more focused; the band's power is sometimes diluted by the diffuse energy. Still, Re proves that Café Tacuba is lyrically and musically more adventurous than most of its '90s peers. ~ Victor W. Valdivia, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Café Tacuba is a product of a movement of the '80s and '90s known as "rock en español" -- rock with lyrics in Spanish. From Mexico to Spain to Argentina, "rock en español" became absolutely huge among Hispanic youths and presented an aggressive, hard-edged alternative to softer Latin pop. It was Mexico that gave the world Café Tacuba, which goes for a punkish snarl on this excellent CD. But while the snarl and aggression are hard to miss, Tacuba is undeniably musical and far from predictable. Punk rock is a strong influence, but so is everything from Jamaican ska to Mexican tejano and banda music. Melody is important to this band, which might have reached English-speaking rockers with this self-titled release were it not for the language barrier and the fact that Latin rock is usually promoted only in Latino circles. ~ Alex Henderson, All Music Guide
