Rating:   2 Ratings     12345  

The Bellakun Bendicion Maldita Has Anyone Ever Told You

      Ex-Egon band mates Victor Talamantes and Joe Quezada team up this time around with Gabe Colunga and Gabe Acevedo, releasing Bendicion Maldita (Has Anyone Ever Told You, 2005). The Bellakun, one year after their debut, complete with an all-new lineup, put out an all-new sound, by refining their previous work to the last detail.

      It’s poppy, it’s melancholy, and it’s the varying degrees of life’s situations, passed down and pulling on your shirtsleeves.

      Scenic views of all they have to offer, the album begins one way, and ends entirely different. ‘Fooling A Fool’ is as harmless and evocative as the dreams of Modest Mouse/The Arcade Fire, but with the brief interruptions of a Rilo Kiley sound experimentation. Drumming tickles the underbelly of meticulous guitar playing, like that of a harpsichord. Their voices are crocheted around each other, and more prominent guitar and bass appear on the surface.

      Instrumental track ‘Optimism Of A Deceitful Heart’ contains keyboards that defy the standards, as the rest of the music builds up around it, much like Thursday’s introductory track.

      The band showcases ‘Hey Mr. Arbusto’, their pronounced sole political track on the album, addressing major current and past issues, dating from 9/11 to the war in Iraq, and the countrywide war of poverty. Each lyric is dissected in small pieces, and in the liner notes, the proposed targets are listed to coincide with each lyric.

      The band has conquered inducing melodies with extravagant detail, so that there is correlation between each note. They’ve included the dreary tunes with a need to be hopeful, the articulate peacefulness of songs to be sung along to. Nearly three years since the band first began, two albums in following the chess playing to land the right members, leading to the outcome, the curse inside the blessing, Bendicion Maldita.

-Arie Musil 02/16/06