We can’t help but love LA punks The Bronx. In their day job as easily one of the greatest live bands on the planet they have put out four simply amazing albums of furious yet catchy punk rock ear worms. The kind of songs that stick in your head for days and can’t fail to get the adrenaline pumping. Now The Bronx are not any band who can rest on the fact they have released these four albums in this genre and just ride that wave, oh no, the band need more for their creative outpourings and so in 2009 they released the first album of their alter-ego group, a band that goes by the name Mariachi El Bronx. This band is a whole different monster to their punk rock Jekyll. This bands Hyde is a stunningly authentic Mariachi band (traditional Mexican folk music). Unsurprisingly their stunning first album under this name was self titled, unsurprisingly their second album in this guise was also self titled. Now here we are with album number three from Mariachi El Bronx and guess what! It’s another self titled one, or as we shall call it III.
III opens with ‘New Beat’ and straight away the band are showing they have not lost a step. One of the things that has always pushed this band up is the skill with which vocalist Matt Caughthran is able to write a lyric and deliver it with passion. Be it spitting it out in The Bronx or his golden vocal delivery here. The man knows his way around a lyric and knows how to write a melody. That point is delivered once again with ‘Wildfires’. A tune driven by that authentic latino guitar strum and guiding trumpet (played beautifully by The Bronx bassist Brad Magers).
‘Sticks & Stones’ starts with what you may be tricked into thinking is some distortion about to kick in before an acapella group vocal takes centre stage and is joined by some percussion that marries perfectly with the vocals before we open up back into that familiar folk sound. As the main vocal comes in the group vocal keeps rejoining the track, fitting in like another instrument on the track.
One of the beautiful things about this band is how much is actually going on in each song. Yes you notice the vocal, the trumpet, the guitar, the plucking of the guitarrón, the percussion but their is so much more here. So many levels of sneaky sounds that create so many different levels to the music. It shows that this is no side project, nothing here is chuck away, everything is intentional. We know we have said it before in this review but the authenticity they bring to the music is nothing short of incredible. The songs have a way of getting deep inside of you and creating emotions so you take the journey along with the band as they voyage through the album.
The melancholy ‘Nothing’s Changed’ stirs a sadness in your heart that seeps over into ‘Eternal’. The pace picks up with ‘Raise The Dead’ a song that can’t fail to make everyone move their feet. Before you know it you reach the end of the journey with ‘Valya’ which closes this chapter perfectly. A track that encompasses everything you love about this band and ends on such a high note with a stirring crescendo.
Well, they have done it again. Seven albums over two bands and the band have still failed to write a bad song. This album is just amazing, it has such beauty to it and once again shows what storytellers the band are with their music, it’s a full on ride from start to finish, one of those rare albums where you take in everything and listen intently. When an album can stir a cathartic release in the listener you know they are something very special indeed. This reviewer had to go for a cigarette after first listen. Close to perfect. Again.
