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Café Tacvba's Re
This book is about unveiling and exploring the many layered gestures of Re.
Re, the 1994 album by the Mexican group Café Tacvba, is a spectacularly unique musical object that adopts and adapts myriad musical genres with the pulse, the attitude, and the energy of punk and rock. Mambo and ska, samba and salsa, punk and industrial, disco and Mexican banda, are but a few of the genres in this musical trip.
But Re is not appropriation, but rather 20 original tracks of music that think through the music created and consumed in Latin America. The lyrics add layer after layer of either nuance or shock, as they play with the cultural and musical expectations of the many genres included in the album. Re, in a very real way, displays the post-punk origins of the band-loud, thoughtful, nerdy and quirky, irreverent-and it does so by creating songs that represent the historical, cultural, musical and political complexity of Mexico and Latin America. The general reaction of Re in the Anglo world is that this is Café Tacvba's 'White Album', but the album far exceeds that simplistic comparison.
Re, the 1994 album by the Mexican group Café Tacvba, is a spectacularly unique musical object that adopts and adapts myriad musical genres with the pulse, the attitude, and the energy of punk and rock. Mambo and ska, samba and salsa, punk and industrial, disco and Mexican banda, are but a few of the genres in this musical trip.
But Re is not appropriation, but rather 20 original tracks of music that think through the music created and consumed in Latin America. The lyrics add layer after layer of either nuance or shock, as they play with the cultural and musical expectations of the many genres included in the album. Re, in a very real way, displays the post-punk origins of the band-loud, thoughtful, nerdy and quirky, irreverent-and it does so by creating songs that represent the historical, cultural, musical and political complexity of Mexico and Latin America. The general reaction of Re in the Anglo world is that this is Café Tacvba's 'White Album', but the album far exceeds that simplistic comparison.
160 pages, Paperback
Published November 13, 2025
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December 30, 2025
Excelente análisis de uno de los mejores álbumes de la historia. El trabajo de Esterrich es sobresaliente; me encantó que con sus palabras posicione esta obra maestra en el lugar que se merece y que la desglose tanto en el todo como en la suma de sus partes. Me sorprendió la interpretación de canciones como "El aparato", "El baile y el salón" y "Pez/Verde"; así haya escuchado este álbum miles de veces, es cautivante que siempre haya algo nuevo por descubrir.
Destaco la pulcritud con la que invita a cualquier oyente, especialmente a los no-hispanohablantes, a apreciar esta piedra angular mundial. Espero que este sobresaliente libro impulse a la serie 33 1/3 a publicar más ensayos sobre música latinoamericana. También sería ideal que sea traducido en español para que más personas puedan re-enamorarse del legado de los tacubos.
Destaco la pulcritud con la que invita a cualquier oyente, especialmente a los no-hispanohablantes, a apreciar esta piedra angular mundial. Espero que este sobresaliente libro impulse a la serie 33 1/3 a publicar más ensayos sobre música latinoamericana. También sería ideal que sea traducido en español para que más personas puedan re-enamorarse del legado de los tacubos.
Displaying 1 of 1 review