A Little Late, So What?

The finest indie-pop album of 2006 was not released in the United States (though it’s scheduled for this year; but really, thanks to Soulseek every decent record has a worldwide release) — but, no, it wasn’t released in the UK either. And it’s not Scandinavian, German, Japanese, or Brazilian. It was recorded in Nashville, and released in Mexico, and I found out about it thanks not to Pitchfork or an obscure mp3 blog, but to that old gray lady of stuffy whitebread journalism, the New York Times. The album is called Blanco Fácil, and it’s by a dude who calls himself Chetes. Which is a nickname (it means “cheeks”) he acquired as a kid; his real name is Gerardo Garza, but no one calls Sting Gordon Sumner, so never mind.

Tagline (EMI Latin, feel free to use on promotional material): Do you like the Decemberists, Belle & Sebastian, Ryan Adams, and the New Pornographers, but wish you didn’t understand what they were saying? Have I got a record for you.

Actually, if you happen to understand Spanish (I do) the lyrics are good too, poetic without being pretentious, and constructed without thought of easy translation into English — which, since Spanish is rapidly becoming the second language of the United States (suck it, xenophobes), is fine. If you don’t happen to understand Spanish, just pretend it’s all very romantic and philosophical because that’s what Spanish sounds like, and you won’t be far wrong.

Mexico’s not usually thought of as being a hotspot of global pop music the way Japan, Brazil, Sweden, India, and even Mali (thanks, Damon Albarn) are; and no, Chetes doesn’t really draw from any traditional genres like norteño (the country & western of Latin America) to forge a new, exciting Mexican form of pop; he just does the old, exciting Anglo-American form of pop better than anyone else has done it for quite a while. He namechecks the Beatles and the Beach Boys like every other good indie kid, but sounds more like, well, like Wilco (whose drummer produced the album). And the accessible, lovelorn Summerteeth version of Wilco, at that.

I’ve had the album on my mp3 player for a while, but for one reason or another never got around to listening to it until today. And hot damn it’s good. Check it out.