The Singles Jukebox

“Tu Solo De Acordeón,” more like.

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[6.43]

Alfred Soto: This tejano band’s prominent drums matches the depth of their longing, the passages of guitar distortion their acknowledgement that la ausencia isn’t improving, the lead phrases on the accordion their hope that they’re wrong.
[7]

Cassy Gress: I am completely befuddled by the electric guitar rips in the instrumental break, found nowhere else in the song. Strangely, though, those electric guitar rips lead into a final bridge and chorus that have a lot more complexity going for them than the pre-break parts, which mostly sound overly basic and hokey despite Ricardo Muñoz’s best vocal efforts.
[5]

Iain Mew: Gosh, the instrumental in the middle starts off like something small and then just keeps surprising, luxury punctuated by sharpened spikes of guitar that don’t quite poke through the unfurling velvet. It’s the clear highlight, apart perhaps from the singer stepping back in straight after with the world’s most unruffled air.
[6]

Josh Langhoff: For the second time in a decade, Ricky Muñoz cries out “me faltas tú” in the chorus of a song; and just like last time, René Martínez bashes his batería with cheerful indifference to his friend’s bereftitude. I just finished reading The Giver so I’m a little tender, but for all the heartbreaking details in the lyrics — color giving way to gray, the absence of dew and breath — the most striking moments are pure communal musical joy: Hotshot accordion duking it out with distorted guitar. Cadences stretched past their expected stopping points. Muñoz’s inexplicable ability to scan the word “inexplicablemente.” The rhythm section that keeps finding new ways to lope. And finally, “eeeYAHW!!!!”
[8]

Will Adams: A jaunty number, thanks to the double-time snare drum, that’s not terribly remarkable. And then the accordion solo hits.
[6]

Brad Shoup: A muscular longing, from the guitar stings to the effortless accordion solo. That it takes a scream to get this to 3:00 is my favorite part.
[6]

Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa: Ever since their game-changing album Llévame Contigo (1996), Intocable’s brand of live-ready, neatly-arranged Tejano/Norteño pop has been emulated ad nauseam by countless subsequent groups, but their hook proficiency and tight musicianship just can’t be equalled. There have been groups with better vocalists (Límite), more lyrically charged (Pesado), and more faithful to the roots of the genre (El Poder del Norte), but Intocable is one of the precious few that could make unorthodox moves like a distorted guitar-led transition work; only Ricky Muñoz can ride a bridge with those accordion triplets — or as a few Monterrey accordionists call it, “metralleta” (machine gun) — and return to that ballady chorus so smoothly. And when they play these material live, it’s even tighter. They’re like the Steely Dan of Tex-Mex. 
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