EL GENERO BOBO, NACHO VEGASLimbo Starr, Spain
Rating: 73
By Carlos Reyes
With every album, Nacho Vegas makes his fellow adult-rockers look bad. Seriously, we all should feel more proud of having him around; he’s as passionate as Morrissey and as rational as Bruce Springsteen. But most of all, he is the answer to all of us in search for gritty lyrics and, why not, sad music. Nacho is the definition of the singer-songwriter with so much depth and sensitivity to melt his own masculinity into pure emotion. El Género Bobo like most of his EPs is however, minor Nacho Vegas, which is pretty good nonetheless.
Elegant glossy compositions in obscure moods are part of his endowment, some of the reasons why one can’t hesitate to call him a pupil of Johnny Cash or José Alfredo Jiménez. El Género Bobo isn’t a transitional album because it’s a plain signature album, but as any other chapter of his discography, it’s impossible not to be moved. The album opens with a reflective deliberation: “los hombres un día sintieron sufrir y quisieron compartirlo, entonces, inventaron el amor.” One would think Nacho writes his songs surrounded by thorns or restrained by threats, truth is, his blossoming authority and protective vocals are so pleasing to the ear and the heart, it’s a pleasure to allow his pessimism take over us.
This 5-pieced EP is well constructed, but it does need the framing of his LPs. It’s also perhaps too broad in its themes to attract new fans. With a few tricks, he manages to sound current, from the avant-garde in “Penultimo Anhelo” or the gospel in “Al Final.” But let’s briefly talk about “Las Inmensas Preguntas”, a dazzling provoking track displaying naked feelings quietly, and at the same time, exhibiting effortless excellence. It shows Vegas’s exceptional songwriting: “Hice una canción y creí que verías en ello un piropo, la escuchaste y después me dijiste lo tuyo es del genero bobo.” It’s a celebratory track on vanished feelings and those moments where words cannot describe but feel, “y me pierdo en inmensas preguntas que lucen con esplandor y absurdidad, ya vivi, sufri y ame, y todo para que?”