Calexico
Garden Ruin

THE REVIEW

After several, not always entirely focused, artistic collaborations with a thick array of sound-riders belonging to the same vertical indie/contemporary scene, the substantial Calexico sextet, eternally supported by the dynamic City Slang, softly claims the attention of its presumably growing aficionados, charmed by the five intriguing previous works and the esteemed sound offer contained within, with eleven new exciting, often graceful, if not always wonderfully engaging tracks, constituting a smooth and never trivial walk among ruins set in the intriguing and contemporary sound-garden.

In some ways and at a superficial listen, the floral and more deliberately pop path taken might seem to highlight a directional growth of an audio-"normalizing" nature in the so far tested and tried Calexico substance, often enriched, in the past, by beyond-border and "borderline" sound-mixing experiences. Instead, it is a work endowed with a broadly defined personality, solidly imbued with sober, friendly, often wonderfully and tremblingly chiaroscuro tones, thanks also to the refined yet pleasant vocal interweavings placed and appropriately highlighted throughout many scraps present in this new context.

The well-matched Burns/Convertino couple, even on this occasion, whatever the audio-matter at hand, persist in demonstrating a recognizable and high songwriting quality, frequently close (in its not so narrow scope) to semi-perfection: to be fair, some sparse passages (read: "Luckey Dime", quite weak) do not entirely captivate, but these are exclusively sporadic and non-decisive fragments whose presence does not at all nullify the considerable work completely put in place. A significant emotional intensity is vividly highlighted in the flow of the fresh and unprecedented short songs (barely forty are the first that make up the entirety), presenting an acoustic picture often painted with broad and soft shades, devoid of inappropriate and hard-edged sound emissions: an "ordered" framework (not banal, to be clear), where the sound-tiles appear truly in their natural and appropriate disc-placement: one can take as an example the quiet yet moving "Brisbee Bee" and its elegant mixes of violins and horns, combined with the familiar/Burnsian vocal notes, with acoustic/grated guitars on the side as an enriching accompaniment.

Arrangements and tonalities are painstakingly and expertly weighed and measured, almost as if fearing, in some way, to harm others’ unblemished auricular eardrums: "Roka" subtly attracts by virtue of the gentle vocal embroideries between Mister Burns and the Catalan (temporarily "lent") as well as dear Senhorita Amparo Sanchez, on a perfect acoustic substrate generated by the engaging melange between sparkling guitars and captivating Mexican-like rhythms and horns; also to be adequately highlighted, in an entirely different sound-direction, are the more than successful electrifying guitar riffs contained in the engaging and very vital "Letter to Bowie Knife" or in the moderately edgy concluding act "All Systems Red".

In conclusion, it seems to configure, although structurally/differently from the past, yet another successful and accomplished Calexico-confirmation: a felt, often deep work, not particularly generous but definitely intriguing, as one positively hoped from our "trusted" Tucson strummers.