Monday, May 23rd, 2016

Calibre 50 – Préstamela a Mí

But are we laughing?


[Video][Website]
[4.43]

Alfred Soto: The accordion melody and broad singing suggest the joke is on the singer, but I can’t shake the unpleasantness of the title hook. The literal translation is “Let me borrow her.” Connotatively, however, it’s closer to “Let me give her a try.” Whichever you prefer, the track’s too okay to ponder much.
[5]

Juana Giaimo:Lend her to me.” What can you lend? Books, albums, cameras, pencils — and Calibre 50 would add “women” to the list. The voice may be unbearably dramatic, but the lyrics couldn’t be more disgusting by pointing out “formulas” to make a woman happy, because every woman is surely the same: offering her an ice cream when she is “in her days” or telling her that she is your princess. The fact that the video has 24 million views is terrifying. 
[0]

Brad Shoup: I get that Eden Muñoz and company like telling it how it is, but this particular sentiment can stay unsung, thanks. One point for delivering the title like a child throwing a fit, which is the one honest bit.
[1]

Cassy Gress: I find the lyrics to this decidedly more interesting than the technically skilled but not nearly as sexy instrumentation. The problem with that, though, is that it makes me less likely to buy the idea that as a last resort, Armando Ramos will do a better job of um, “cheering up” the angry girlfriend than her existing lover will.
[5]

Rebecca A. Gowns: I love the childlike simplicity of these lyrics. It could even be sung to a baby, minus the “haces el amor” part — like, listen baby, if you’re upset, I’ll kiss your little belly and give you ice cream. Wait a minute… that’s what I want too. Anyone who loves anyone has to listen to this song, stat.
[8]

Josh Langhoff: While his rhythm section lurches like a Frankenstein monster wielding breath spray, Eden Muñoz goes full Eddie Cornelius on how to treat your angry mujer like a lady. Have you considered kissing her feet and feeding her ice cream? Muñoz is a smart enough writer that I’m convinced he’s kidding, in the Randy Newman sense, and that “Préstamela a Mí” is pointing and laughing at the many paternalistic manos surrounding Calibre on the radio. I mean, just this week you’ve got Gerardo Ortiz offering “Millones de Besos” instead of, you know, talking; Chuy Lizarraga kicking himself for succumbing to the kisses of a devious mujer; and the loathsome Banda MS wondering why all those kisses weren’t enough to make her stay. I can only imagine the stifling fog of their breath-sprayed BS, and I’d like to think Calibre points and laughs a way through it.
[6]

Jonathan Bogart: Banda norteño is generally too stiff-rhythmed to really get into a sexy grind, but the deliberately slow pace set by the tuba and the fleet-fingered accordion flourishes do their best to suggest steaminess, if not actual funk. The video provides its own heat by transposing the lyrics’ seduction-by-proxy on to a (straight dude’s) lesbian fantasy, but even with that, Ramos’s unpolished, pop-punk vocals make this song more sex comedy than serious romanticism.
[6]

Reader average: [8] (3 votes)

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4 Responses to “Calibre 50 – Préstamela a Mí”

  1. Thank you Josh – you know norteño and I don’t, and that was some context I missed :) also I screwed up and got the wrong name of the vocalist (thanks google :P)

  2. For the hot second I considered applying to be a writer, I listened to this song first, read the translation, and knew that I was not ready. I think I got as far as “Why? [4]”, so at least I hit at the average.

  3. I mean *maybe* it’s just a sexist song; but compared to those other songs I mentioned, it’s sharply written and absurd enough that it blurs the lines between “calling the bluffs of my rivals” and “boorish sexism.” Like Trump! (Although I wouldn’t call him “sharply written.”)

  4. Sad!