Calexico

The problem with rewriting any rule book is that quite often you are then forbidden to follow those new rules, this is left to the lesser beings that are content to bring up the rear. Instead you are constantly expected to lead the way. Trust me, I speak from experience, this is the burden I must shoulder and so too must Joey Burns and his band of merry Mariachi’s. Since their departure from pioneering alt-country group Giant Sand, Calexico have set the pace in this most creative of genres reaching their creative peak with 2003’s Feast Of Wire. With their recent offering the band adopt a more direct approach producing a much less challenging yet still high quality and more palatable piece of work.

I wasn’t blown away by the first 3 songs and it was all riding on the fourth, if this didn’t stop me in my tracks I would have to exercise my ‘Suck it and see’ rights at Fopp. Luckily for me (you tend to get dirty looks by the Fopp staff if you ‘Suck’ too often) Panic Open String though not a clincher made me take notice, and I continued to take notice with the next 2 songs. Letter To Bowie Knife seemed to bring some weight to the album and Roka heralded a return to familiar territory for Calexico, that of sun-drenched, dusty tex-mex arrangements. But the two moments that really confirmed its place for me came near the end with Deep Down, a slow building triumph that really wets your appetite for the grand finale that is All Systems Red. Here the boys really pull out all the stops and build up the tempo so slowly and so intensely that what is otherwise quite a low key, safe album leaves you gasping and exhausted and surprisingly thrilled.