3ball MTY - Inténtalo UMLE/Fonovisa, Mexico
Rating: 79
by Conejito Colvin
So, now that a certain Mexploitation piece by Vice has and continues to spread virally (and not in the network phenomenon sense, but more like in the infective disease sort of way), and everyone from the New York Times to your dyed-in-the-wool Chicano neighbor has reached a verdict on it, what’s left to be said, really? I mean, does an album like this—a game changer in the truest sense of the term—even warrant a trite appraisal based on its...what? Musical merit? As I type, “Inténtalo” is comfortably perched at #2 on Billboard’s Latin charts, having occupied the Top 10 list for what seems like an eternity (in Internet years, anyway). Lest the reader forget, we’re talking about rave music. Nay, Mexican rave music!
Meanwhile, The Tribal Triad continues to make the rounds at every single show on the Univision-cum-Telemundo apparatus, and then some (award shows). Hell, I can’t even drive to the grocery store without hearing “Inténtalo” blasting out of someone’s car speakers. That and Rihanna. I can’t begin to think of all the demographics this thing is exposing. All of which, I’m sure, 3ball MTY’s PR peeps are hell-bent on conquering.
I guess the real question left to ask here is, will you like it (faceless mipster, thou)? Pues, I’d say the odds are split at an even 50. Meaning, you’ll either LUUURVE it, or you’ll want to pry your ears off. Possibly both! The hard-boiled fact of the matter is that the very reasons to love this album are the same ones that could, just maybe, rub some people in an inadequate fashion. Erm, how to put this bluntly? It just sounds sooo Mexican. But, hey, don’t get me wrong, I grew up on this kind of music. I should add that, amazingly, listening to “Inténtalo” approximately 948 times since last summer hasn’t, in fact, made me want to pry my ears off (that, I expect, will happen around the 1,000 mark). So, unless you’re one of them self-loathing Mexican’t types, I don’t really see you taking an issue with this incessantly hook-heavy album.
Case in point: the auto-tune heavy “Mala Mujer.” What initially appears like an ill-conceived Latin Explosion 2.0 number eventually reveals itself to be, well, not that. It manages to stand out in a record filled with more hooks than an Australian bra factory, and it’s my dark horse for dethroning the lead single’s unparalleled state of ubiquity. Other times, the focus is less geared on the airwaves, and back where it all started, with a relentless four-to-the-floor rhythm. “Baile de Amor” is ample proof of 3ball MTY’s continued flair for stirring up the most idle of dance floors.
If you’re part of the one percent of fans out there who have been following 3ball MTY from day one—which I’ll assume, for the purposes of this review, that you exist and are reading this—then I have some bad, and possibly sad, news for you. This is the most watered-down incarnation of their sound that you will hear. BUT, if (like this writer and fellow fan), you came upon them before the bonanza, then I’ll infer that you don’t purchase records in Compact Disc format at your local retailer (which is what these days, Best Buy? Wal-Mart? I’m seriously asking, I don’t know anybody who does this!), but rather prefer downloading your tribal music from the Interwebz and will continue to do so, in spite of Erick, Sheeqo, and Otto becoming the Menudo of Mexican rave music. In which case you should disregard everything I just wrote, and instead refer to the following three words: 3BALL MTY PUTOS!
3Ball mty - Amantes Guaracheros by Steven A.