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Aterciopelados - Rio
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| Pastemagazin |
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Over a driving, electronic groove that sounds like updated B-52s minus the cheese factor, Aterciopelados singer Andrea Echeverri goes to the heart and soul of what her band is all about in the song “Bandera” (“Flag”). “Who said that a piece of fabric closes doors and borders?” she sings, in Spanish, about halfway into the group’s new album, Río. It’s classic Aterciopelados, and one of the many highlights of these environmental prayers, songs of peace and odes to motherhood. The album’s title—River, in English—serves as a metaphor for the unbounded nature of life on Planet Earth. Ignoring boundaries is something Aterciopelados (The Velvety Ones) have long practiced, not just in their lyrics but also in their sonic juxtapositions: hardcore punk with acoustic folk, electronics with traditional Andean instrumentation, metal riffs with ska shuffles. Río, the band’s seventh studio album and another creative peak, begins with the soothing sound of flowing water before the group launches into the polyrhythms of the title song, its poetic lyrics anthropomorphizing the river whose waters run, sing, and dream of becoming clearer and cleaner....full text |
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| Allmusic |
| Following a five-year sabbatical, Aterciopelados staged an acclaimed comeback in 2006 with Oye, a Latin Grammy-winning album on which they returned to the Caribbean folklore-inflected rock of their mid- to late-'90s prime. Río, the follow-up album to Oye, is similarly styled, more reminiscent of La Pipa de la Paz (1997), the album that firmly established Aterciopelados as one of the leading alternative rock bands in Latin America, than subsequent efforts such as Caribe Atómico (1998) or Gozo Poderoso (2001) on which the band more freely experimented with different styles, particularly electronica. While Oye and Río are generally similar in style, they differ in a couple ways. For one, Río is lyrically thematic, often concerned with environmental awareness. It's not a full-fledged concept album, but from one song to the next, vocalist/lyricist Andrea Echeverri rarely strays far from environmental issues -- in fact, the sound of rushing water fills the gap between songs, reinforcing the concept of environmental awareness -- and when she does touch upon non-environmental issues, she remains politically engaged and socially conscious. Secondly, though Río isn't as stylistically freewheeling as Caribe Atómico or Gozo Poderoso -- to their detriment, some believe -- never veering too close to what one might even casually describe as electronica, it's more adventurous musically than Oye. Much of the musical adventurousness can be credited to producer/multi-instrumentalist Héctor Buitrago, who crafts different shades of a uniform musical style that mixes together aspects of rock en español and Latin alternative, plus Caribbean rhythms, folk instrumentation, and drum programming. Adding to the adventurousness, one of the album highlights, "28," features a song-closing rap by Gloria "Goya" Martínez of up-and-coming fellow Columbians Choc Quib Town. Given the broad stylistic and thematic differences between Aterciopelados albums, it's difficult to measure one against another, yet Río is undoubtedly one of the band's better efforts. Like La Pipa de la Paz and Oye, the album is engaging from beginning to end. Not only are each of the songs on Río unique; they're all impressive, adding up to a complete full-length album experience filled with highlights....full text |
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| Billboard |
| The miracle of Aterciopelados is that it backs up its message songs with beautiful, infectious music. The Colombian duo's latest, "Rio," is no exception—it's an antiwar statement and a plea to protect the environment, especially the title track about the polluted Rio Bogotá. But it's also an exquisitely rendered celebration of nature in all its forms (rain, lightning, laughter, unconditional love and even the simple pleasure of opening a box of cookies). There's a mix of strident, percussive anthems ("Gratis," "Madre," "Hijos de Tigre") but also more melodic material ("Tomate," "Agüita"). The beauty here is that Aterciopelados' musical worldview is not only big enough for rock, pop, chanting and chill-out, but that it can use all these styles to make a statement. —Ayala Ben-Yehuda...full text |
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