Infectious fun! Those two words pretty much sum up the mood of Azul Azul's El Sapo CD -- one of the smartest, funniest, most off-beat CDs in today's Latin Pop marketplace. Buy this CD even if it's just for one song: La Bomba!

La Bomba
If you're like me, you probably get ticked off by artists that put out albums with just one good song on 'em. I'd agree, but in this case, the best song on the CD is what I feel is the single best song to hit the Latin pop charts in the past year. (Besides, there's some other good stuff on this CD too!)

La Bomba is everything you could possibly want in a pop song! It's funnier than the Three Stooges. More stylish than Armani. Faster than Mario Andretti. And just generally more fun than getting Pamela Anderson to jump into a hot tub full of melted margarine with you. (And let me assure you, that is fun!)

But seriously, folks...La Bomba is just a fun, sexy, fast dance tune. Nothin' deep. Just fun.

No Moldy Oldie Stuff Here!
I love the fresh, innovative sound and lyrics of Azul Azul. There are no silly romantic ballads on this CD. No sirree! No silly mindless "bash the establishment" songs that you hear from a lot of the louder genres either. No painful teen growing up songs. Instead, you've just got this cutting, insightful, unique viewpoint into topics that no totally sane artist would seriously sing about.

Take the song Celulitis. Do you really want to hear a song about women with fat ugly thighs? You might if it's an Azul Azul song, because it's just so darn funny and upbeat that you can't help but like it. From the dedication to "the love of my life, my little fat girl," to the insightful observation that liposuction and silicon are a heck of a lot easier than exercise and diet, I think this is a song that can resound well in the United States...

The low-key, self-deprecating humor of Loco really just cracks me up, and it goes perfectly with the shifting sounds and offensive sound effects that back it up. The song kicks off with an opening trumpet and keyboards that sound nice and soft, like you're sitting in a quiet piano bar enjoying a drink with some friends. Suddenly, loud raucous heavy metal riffs kick in backed up with the "loco" refrain and plenty of offensive sound effects, from flatulence to flushing toilets. The words are kind of a hoot: "I don't know why, my mama says I have nobility, but she also says I have sh*t for brains..."

Sapo is a rude, hard-rocking nonsensical tune about having a green frog, complete with croak sounds. Hmm. Maybe this song is just an excuse to belch in the microphone a few dozen times. Who cares? It rocks!

The Sound...
I always like drawing parallels between groups, but there's not really anybody in modern pop that I can think of that is just quite as warped, or quite as lighthearted as the guys in Azul Azul. They're great!

The sound is pure pop, but they also have very strong reggae influences, which you hear in the sing-song lyrics and the way that sound patterns repeat. Listen to Negra and I think you'll agree that the reggae sound is unmistakable.

The one song that jars me a little on this album is El Canto de las Aves. On an album that's essentially so full of joy and life, it's surprising to find one that memorializes an ecologist (Noel Kempff) who was murdered by drug traffickers in 1986.

Azul Azul
Never heard of Azul Azul? Well, pull up a chair and grab a brewski, my friend!

Azul Azul is the hottest international pop group to come out of Bolivia in a very long time (if not ever). The group got its start 1990 doing a mix of latin pop, reggae, and Bolivian folk music -- the same influences you hear in El Sapo, the group's second album.

The group did some recordings in the early 1990s, but their first real album was El Corte de la Banana which came out in 1995. This album started putting them on the scopes of international pop music listeners, and it helped that they did a concert tour with Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, and later opened shows for groups like Cafe Tacuba.

Although El Sapo was released in the U.S. in 2000, it was available internationally two years earlier.

Azul Azul is lead vocalist Fabio Zambrana Marchetti, drummer Boris Anzoategui, guitarist Ricardo Fries, bass player Adhemar Villagomes, and keyboard player Marco Cespedes. For more info about the band, see their web site: www.azulazul.com.

Bottom Line
I bought El Sapo for my wife because it contains the high-energy pop hit La Bomba. The big surprise to me was that Azul Azul had a whole lot more depth and imagination than I'd been giving them credit for. The group I thought of as one-hit wonders were actually smart, funny, hip, and incredibly talented. I recommend this album wholeheartedly to anyone who likes good, solid latin pop music, and I just hope we don't have to wait five years to see another CD from Azul Azul.



Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Hanging With Friends