Bocanada is the second solo album released by former Soda Stereo frontman and principal writer Gustavo Cerati. It marks his return to pop songwriting after a series of instrumental electronica projects that focused more on grooves and atmospheres, and less on the memorable melodies that were a Soda trademark. While the classic Cerati song hooks are all over the place on Bocanada, the material is closer in nature to Colores Santos or Amor Amarillo, the stylistically diverse albums he recorded while on creative hiatus from Soda. Although the album still relies heavily on the electronics from recent projects, the sound is much more organic and varied than expected. The chase scene drama of "Tab├║" sounds lifted from a '60s Italian spy flick; "Beautiful" (mercifully, only the title is in English) is a slow funky groove that recalls "Blue Lines" era Massive Attack, while "Paseo Inmoral" is pure Glam swagger that would have Gary Glitter's lawyers in a huff if they weren't so busy already. It's also the one straight ahead rock song on the album, and perhaps one of the catchiest songs Cerati has done in a long time.
The rest of the tracks are just as diverse in style, but more introspective in nature. ΓÇ£AlmaΓÇ¥ is beautifully luminous, a restrained swirl of popping synth arpeggios and washes of tremoloed guitars with Cerati's echoey vocals coming for a couple of short verses and then disappearing out the backdoor without saying goodbye. There's a couple of Lennonesque confessionals like "Perdonar Es Divino" and "Enga├▒a," a rough, unfinished sounding acoustic track that breaks out into a post psychedelia layered fuzz guitar chorus, and the stately lounge-rock of the title track, which finds Cerati doing an almost perfect impression of 70ΓÇÖs Mexican crooner Jose-Jose over icy sheets of Mellotron strings and heavy drums. Not that all his stylistic jags pay off, though. ΓÇ£Rio Babel,ΓÇ¥ with its cloying Middle Eastern string motifs sounds like warmed over Thompson Twins exotica, and the orchestral ΓÇ£Verbo CarneΓÇ¥ is simply wretched, overwrought self indulgence. But then you get something like ΓÇ£Aqui y Ahora,ΓÇ¥ a pastoral acoustic piece that quotes both Borges and English Settlement XTC, that turns into bouncy Acid Jazz for its finale. Like much of Bocanada, it's the sound of Cerati coming to terms and merging his artsy-pop hitmaker past with his current passion for electronics and experimentation. And itΓÇÖs a great sound indeed.
Gustavo Cerati: "Puente" written by G. Cerati, courtesy of BMG Ariola Argentina S.A. Industria Argentina and Sadaiic.
