What was surprising about The Black Light (and what set its architects apart from their indie rock peers) was the album’s unusual willingness to wade into the rapids of American and Mexican culture, fully immersing itself midstream. From the outset, with Gypsy’s Curse, the record combines guitar twang and flamenco flourishes; and by its end, almost an hour later, it’s contrived a skillful and instinctive union of smoky bar room jazz, arthouse indie rock, and compelling mariachi brass in Frontera. If Calexico falls short as a name, it’s only in the fact that - alongside their mining of Mexico’s fertile musical past - Joey Burns and John Convertino weren’t just digging into California’s songbook.
Tracklist
1 Gypsy's Curse
2 Fake Fur
3 The Ride (Pt II)
4 Where Water Flows
5 The Black Light
6 Sideshow
7 Chach
8 Missing
9 Minas De Cobre (For Better Metal)
10 Over Your Shoulder
11 Vinegaroon
12 Trigger
13 Sprawl
14 Stray
15 Old Man Waltz
16 Bloodflow
17 Frontera