Outloud! Records, May 20, 2020
Los Candidatos light another candle on the Ramones shrine
The Ramones seemed to land pretty hard in parts of Latin America. One of the outcomes of this is the proliferation of Ramonescore bands in places like Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia. Bogota's Los Candidatos is one of the great examples of this phenomenon.
Now, I'm going to say this before questions are asked: I don't speak Spanish. I took French in high school (a long time ago) and don't really remember that either. That matters here because on Premoniciones, Los Candidatos sing in Spanish. So I'm not going to be able to offer any sort of fair insight on the lyrics here. I simply don't know them. But I can write about the music because it's pretty universal.
Premoniciones is loaded with songs that, musically at least, could be ripped from Leave Home. Songs like opener “Año Nuevo Chino” and “Pamela” have some fantastic guitars. The rhythm guitar sounds like a buzzsaw on each, and the lead plays around with a surf tone that sounds right to me. “Pamela” has a bit of a leg up here, as the staccato backing vocals on that one hit a bit more right than the sort of gang vocals on “Año Nuevo Chino”, but both are loaded with melody and are really good songs. Los Candidatos do straight Ramones worship on “Cretina” (there's a real “I Wanna Be Sedated” vibe on the verses) and mess around with a kind of Jughead-esque lead guitar and some nearly off-the-rails stuttered timing parts on “¿Por Qué?”, another catchy couple of songs. But my two favorites are “Para Ti” and “Salir De Aquí”, each with a sort of throwback 50's vibe to them. The backing vocals on the verses of “Para Ti” remind me of a Buddy Holly number and the guitar on the bridge of “Salir De Aquí” gets me thinking of Gene Vincent. Musically, this record does well by playing it straight, keeping the Ramones sounds close while adding some surf bits here and 50's rock and roll pieces there.
On Premoniciones, there are only a couple of moments where my brain starts to wander a bit. “Perdiendo el Control” is a mid-tempo song that sounds like a reworking of a Ramones sort-of-ballad, but it just doesn't really stick in my head. Same goes for the ender, “Tormento Nuclear (Sha-La-La)”. This is one of the faster songs, but for whatever reason, it doesn't really get memorable for me until they get to the “sha-la-la” coda. Neither song is rough, they just don't land and hook me like so much of the rest of the record.
Final thoughts on Los Candidatos Premoniciones: there's some really cool music on this record with a bunch of Ramones worship and nice touches of surf and 50's pop rock tossed in throughout. There's also some great hooks on here. It's a good one.
You might like this if:
- You like the Ramones sound – buzzsaw guitars, melodic bass, simple driving drums, and no fuss songs
You might not if:
- You get bored with play-it-straight Ramonescore
ryan is a reviewer and news editor for TGEFM. He's very secretive, he might be an alien.