In Time

Colombia’s Aterciopelados long-
awaited CD has the duo sounding more like
their rocking and articulate selves.
By: Victor Cruz-Lugo

After a five-year pause,
Colombian rockers Aterciopelados have released their latest CD titled Oye (Listen Up). The result, for the Grammy Award-nominated pair—who are guitarist/songwriter/singer Andrea Echeverri and bassist/producer/songwriter Hector Buitrago—is a decidedly straight ahead, yet transcendent, alt rock album.
The vocals, drums, bass and electric guitars stand nakedly unadorned on most tracks, and there are only the slightest, though rightly placed, electronic and indigenously Colombian flourishes. But what amounts to a return to the early Aterciopelados sound is less a feature of nostalgia, says Echeverri via phone from Bogotá, Colombia, than it is the result of a natural convergence between two talents who, once again, found the right timing.
“The rhythms of life meant this CD took a long time to make, but it comes at the right moment, now that we’ve each had time to deal with other, more personal issues,” Echeverri explains, alluding, in her case, to the raising of her young child.
One thing rarely straight ahead about Aterciopelados, however, is the pair’s Spanish-language lyrical inventiveness. The 13 tracks on Oye speak of myriad subjects between the poles of love and war. Oye begins with the hard-driving single Complemento (Complement), a tune which is as much a love song as it is a plutonic homage to all fruitful pairings including this return of Echeverri and Buitrago. The album quickly takes the first of many sonic gear shifts, though, with the heartbreakingly gentle, kaleidoscopic ballad Que Te Besen (May You Be Kissed).
As if reminding listeners to stay on their toes, Oye moves from the benign waltz-like psychedelia of Que Te Besen, quickly ramping up to the peculiarly martial, strident Colombian drums of Don Dinero (Mr. Money). Here the tone alters entirely and we are back in the familiar Aterciopelados land of irony, Echeverri’s inventive tongue firmly in cheek, and with a horn section to flesh out the feel of this false anthem to hard cash.
The CD’s true anthems are to be found elsewhere. In Canción Protesta (Protest Song), perhaps, wherein listeners are asked to consider political alternatives to war, or possibly in the seventh song, the also anti-war Paces (Amends), an urgent, call-and-response number featuring rumbling Colombian rhythms.
In total, Oye performs as a tour de force of lyrical and musical economy. Like the finest pop artists of the late 60s, Aterciopelados manages to be succinct, challenging to the mind and heart, and above all, entertaining and soothing to the ear. Most of the 13 tracks, for example, exist comfortably as stand-alone alt rock singles. But even as you are going to be soothed by the infectious melodies and tempted to levitate with the choruses, you are also going to be challenged. Oye Mujer (Listen Woman), for example, pointedly asks a woman whether she’s comfortable as a sexual object, “a piece of meat with a Barbie complex.”
“Yes, there are a lot of topics on this record, but finally there’s the message of harmony that emerges,” offers Echeverri. “All I ask, like the album is titled, is that you listen.”

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