Los Fabulosos Cadillacs- La Salvación de Solo y Juan (2016)

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs- La Salvación de Solo y Juan (2016)

By: Ghost Writer

It’s a little strange to listen to Argentina's Los Fabulosos Cadillacs in rock opera mode, but that's exactly what La Salvación de Solo y Juan is about, and precisely listening to first song No Era Para Vos not only sounds rock opera to me, it also sounds exactly like The Who in none of their legendary recordings like Tommy or Quadrophenia, some might argue that is an enormous leap of faith for LFC, but to me is a really odd progression from a band that shaped Latin Rock in the past decades, closer to The Clash in their eclecticism rather than to Pete Townshend's almighty band, here, LFC not only copies The Who's arena sized song structures, but also Roger Daltrey's falsetto, Townshend's power chords strumming and John Entwistle brutal bass sound, so much that is almost awkward, considering that bands like Canada's Fucked Up, Spain's Los Planetas and even Greenday have done rock opera in more creative ways.

If No Era Para Vos was ugly, Navidad is even worst, lacking energy or charisma and even ambition, presenting half cooked songs that simply go nowhere in the middle of nausea inducing 70s proggy arrangements, resounding pianos and chorused vocals, even when there's a chance of pace after Juan, the band sounds more inclined toward the pop of Vicentico's solo records in only a little bit punctuated by orchestral arrangements but nothing really transcendental, but the band really puts their muscle to work on La Tormenta, featuring ragga vocals and a Flea like bass line that differentiates the song from the others, bringing back the heavy side of the band along pretty interesting dynamic.

I can't call this a total disaster, but it is definitely far removed from the best moments of this legendary Argentinian act, as some of these tunes prove, there are some interesting themes that point in amusing directions, like on the Latin psychedelia of Averno,El Fantasma with its red hot rhythm section, or the disco funk of La Música Salvará al Mundo, still it looks like the band is not focused at all or truly compromised with the concept, as an experiment is not even a radical one, so considering that the band is not exactly prolific, there's a high probability that the band will start to fall into oblivion.