La Cantina

With her rich, husky voice and fiery, almost jazzy style, Mexican/American/Mixtec singer/sngwriter Lila Downs has developed a huge and loyal following. This release celebrates the Mexican cancion ranchera, which is rather like fado, typically about heartache and longing, though much of the music sounds happy. But Downs puts her own stamp on it and moves it into the 21st century. Flaco Jimenez guests. Love this! One of the best in a long time.

*1. Bright mid/uptempo w/screaming guitar, hot vox/perc. Yow!
*2. Happy conjunto sound w/accordion.
3. Downtempo & lush w/cool guitar/perc breaks. So good!
*4. Fado-esque intro, beats, programming, hip hop. Seriously cool.
5. Slow, sad song of heartbreak. Gorgeous.
*6. Fast, fast, fast. Guitars/vox/chorus wildly energetic.
7. Slow, then spoken word. Great, tragic, romantic. Sob!
*8. Fun uptempo conjunto jam w/programming.
9. Slow & sad w/soaring vox, quiet guitar, lots of emotion.
10. Machine guns? Midtempo w/a fairly traditional, rootsy sound.
11. Slow & heartbreaking w/soaring vox, lush strings.
12. Tubas! Big brass band sound. Midtempo Mexican oom-pah.
*13. In English. Swinging folk song gets into a solid rock groove.
14. Slow, delicious a capella track. Elegant, stately, powerful.
15. Gorgeous harp/bass/guitar/vox. Slow, sad, full of longing.