3. Los Fabulosos Cadillacs—Fabulosos Calavera (1997)
No existe nada.
—"A.D.R.B. (En Busca Eterna)" Los Fabulosos Cadillacs
In humanity's final moments, a hundred trillion thoughts race through seven billion minds simultaneously. If there were such a thing as the aether, it would be positively choked with the mass of all that psychic power. Everything that the human race is, was, and ever will be ripples through the collective consciousness all at once. Memories of grandparents. Thoughts of ancient empires long faded into dust. Visions of the greatest works of art ever birthed on canvas or stone. Choice meals. Lost loves. Forgiven grievances. Mathematical equations suddenly, and unexpectedly, solved. Grudges forgiven. Deep-seated hatreds retained. Jealousy. Lust. Pride. Joy. Anger. Love. Regret. All of it, every last notion of the entire human race, explodes in invisible space, and this is what it sounds like.
It starts off, appropriately enough, with a track called "El Muerto" ("The Dead"), which despite the morbid title, is in fact is fairly upbeat latin rock 'n roll with generous doses of horns, complex percussion and abrupt dynamic shifts. It's a good introduction to an album that is both fun and forlorn, smirking and crying out in anguish. The second track, "Surfer Calavera", continues in a similar vein to the first, but the album soon veers off into tangential yet thematically relevant material. "El Carnicero de Giles" pulls a bait-and-switch by starting like death metal then quickly turning into loungy jazz with odd death metal interludes. "Sabato" plays like latin punk meets top ten pop meets showtunes. "Howen" plays like an Argentine cowboy movie score. "A Amigo JV" is a jazzy ballad with an oddly French-sounding accordion thrown in for good measure. The mood changes up a bit with "Hoy Lloré Canción", a very latin flavored drums and bass driven track, and "Calaveras y Diablitos", a reggae-esque track full of mellow harmonies and gorgeous horns. Then before you know it, you're plunging headlong into one of the best tracks on the album—the surf guitar/heavy metal/jazz/polka house of horrors ride that is "Il Pajarito". A brief dip into lounge and fusion follows via "Niño Diamante" before descending into the album's other house of horrors track "Piazzolla", which winds its way through punk, funk, Halloween choirs and kung fu movie brass before unraveling in a sweet jazzy breakdown. After that comes the brief but epic pop/mariachi/metal of "Amnesia" before leading into the final and best track on the album, the awkwardly titled "A.D.R.B. (En Busca Eterna)". This dark, martial salsa/metal ballad is utterly heart-scorching in mood, whether you understand the lyrics or not, and is just the sort of thing you can imagine worming its way through your mind seconds before everything you've ever known and loved is obliterated before your eyes.
To fully appreciate this album, it helps to understand its context. Los Fabulosos Cadillacs started off as a simple ska/reggaeton band in Buenos Aires in the mid-80s, and though they wrote some good songs, it was not immediately apparent that they had an absolutely brilliant songwriting duo at their core in the form of vocalist Gabriel Fernandez Capello and bassist Flavio Cianciarulo. They produced a number of albums, slowly refining their sound as Flavio blossomed into literally one of the best bass players of the late twentieth century. They had several hits in Latin America, including "El Matador" which in my opinion is one of the greatest songs ever written, and eventually released
El León which, with it's broad mix of latin sounds, was the first indication of the heights to which the band would climb. Three years later, in 1995, they followed it up with
Rey Azúcar, a joyous South American blend of reggae, ska and punk which, though fantastic, still lacked a certain unifying vision. They found that vision with
Fabulosos Calavera, a stunning and terrifying ride through the soul of humanity, and managed to forge what to me is one of the greatest albums of my lifetime. After that, like some kind of musical Icarus, they faltered. The follow up album,
La Marcha del Golazo Solitario, was a disappointment and for the past thirteen years they've seemed to be coasting on past glories, releasing half-assed reinterpretations of previously released material. But maybe that's really all there is left to do. Once a band has glimpsed and expressed the annihilation of humanity, what more is there to say?