CD Review

For the better part of ten years, Calexico has sounded like no other experimental rock outfit. Where else can you hear mariachi singers, marimbas and happy trumpets with shades of highway Americana? Recently reaching the Billboard 200 album chart with their 2005 In the Reins collaboration with Iron &Wine, Calexico’s name is as popular as its ever been. Now with the release of their fifth album, Garden Ruin, they switch it up again.

Band leaders John Convertinon and Joey Burns have always played on their interest in southwest culture in their prior releases, but with Garden Ruin, Calexico steers towards the dark indie rock of artists like Will Oldham (Bonnie Prince Billy) Vic Chesnutt and Sam Beam. “Bisbee Blue” sounds like an In The Reins outtake, with it’s dead on Americana melody, and lyricist Burns addresses a more urgent and concentrated message in the lo-fi simple rocker “Letter to Bowie Knife.” In the track he screams “It’s too late, it’s too late/just like I found it, my world is split right down the spine.”

Fans of the tequila friendly sound shouldn’t panic all together, as “Roka (Danza de la muerte) featuring Ampara Sanchez on vocals, gives the album a sexy flair and “Nom de Plume” is equally compelling with its spoken Spanish poetry. Garden Ruin works for its diversity, but is the best Calexico has ever heard? Probably not, although Garden Ruin is certainly a damn good growth pattern.