Five Songs for Oscar

Pancho Ballard & The Banditos (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 16, 2010)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: CDBY
• ASIN: B003907ARO
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars +1/2 - Funny and surprisingly endearing "Mexican" music from... England!, May 23, 2010

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Five Songs for Oscar (Audio CD)

If Nick Lowe had felt despondent after the dissolution of Brinsley Schwarz, and while drowning his sorrows in a Mexican town had stumbled into a studio, the resulting music might have sounded like this UK band's new five-song EP. The melodies are pure pop, but sung with the flair of a gringo trying on faux-Mexican drama, and a horn section that's as authentically South-of-the-Border as Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. The songs cover masked Mexican wrestling, a relationship-restoring recipe (based on the writer Isabel Allende's "reconciliation soup"), and a painter whose trade as a forger casts a shadow on his soul. This might play more as a joke if the band weren't good, but they actually match up to their guarantee: "The best Mexican band to have come out of England!" Well, "Mexican," anyway. Their self-titled debut album was heavier on the `60s guitars, country-rock and humor, but this EP, particularly "Lucha Libre" and "Soup Song," more deeply fulfills the band's promise. 3-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]