Algiers

Calexico | Format: MP3 Music

Product Details

• Original Release Date: September 11, 2012
• Release Date: September 11, 2012
• Label: Anti/Epitaph
• Copyright: 2012 Anti, Inc.
• Record Company Required Metadata: Music file metadata contains unique purchase identifier. Learn more.
• Total Length: 46:36
• Genres:
  • Alternative Rock
• ASIN: B0092W59VW
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,721 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Worthy of the Calexico tradition September 23, 2012

By Thomas E. Davis TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Joey Burns and John Covertino founded Calexico in Tucson in 1996, and they continue to explore territory on the border between Southwestern rock and Mexican music. Longtime fans will be very satisfied by this new release, their seventh, and it should attract even more followers with its seamless blend of atmospheric guitars and vocals with lush horns and violins. Recorded in New Orleans, it bears none of the sounds of that city, but it does capture some of its mournful pathos.

"Algiers" opens with two sweeping anthems, "Epic" and "Splitter," followed by the songs "Sinner in the Sea" and "Para," both of which have a feeling of low-key, minor-key menace that builds to a shattering climax. A Latin rock instrumental entitled "Algiers" precedes a powerful song of lost love, "Maybe on Monday," and two others with a south-of-the-border style (think acoustic guitar and mariachi trumpets), "Puerto" and "No Te Vayas," the latter sung in Spanish. The album closes with two intimate, heartfelt songs. The first, "Hush," is much simpler than second, "The Vanishing Mind," which features a layered sound with acoustic piano and strings.

Not all of the tracks on this CD are quite as effective as the ones I've mentioned. The confessional "Fortune Teller" is a lovely composition that brings to mind Paul Simon, and while that's very good company to be in, I feel the song lacks distinctiveness. "Better and Better" is just too fragile and pathetic for me. Overall, however, the album is a beautiful, brooding work that perfectly matches my mood on those cloudy days when I want to wallow in my blues.

A two-CD import edition is also available. It contains "Spiritoso," a second 12-track disc with an excellent live concert performance that includes several of the songs on "Algiers":

1. Frontera / Trigger (5:25)
2. Epic (4:24)
3. The News About William (3:44)
4. Black Heart (4:54)
5. Minas De Cobre (3:02)
6. Inspiracion (3:29)
7. Two Silver Trees (4:39)
8. Para (4:39)
9. Quattro (5:02)
10. Crystal Frontier (7:43)
11. The Vanishing Mind (4:13)
12. Fortune Teller (4:19)

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Stuff September 13, 2012

By lime2loom

Format:Audio CD

Truly beautiful album -

Perhaps one of their most accessible albums to date in terms of album/song structure, but that in no way means it's easy or light. Algiers is full of shadowy, mysterious, exquisite songs, woven into one beautiful complex and cool album.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars very, very fine; best in years September 19, 2012

By Listener in Portland

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Oh man this is excellent. For me, the last couple releases have just been okay--I don't think Calexico can make a bad album, but the songs bled together too much for me, and things felt a little complacent--but this one seems like the most alive since "Feast of Wire" and "Convict Pool," two of my favorites. There's a great variety of songs here that cohere to suggest a larger narrative. The instrumental title track is a standout, and "The Fortune Teller" may be the most unapologetically beautiful Calexico song ever. HIghly recommended.