With ‘Rio’, Aterciopelados keep new album name short and sweet

During my senior year in high school, I used to carpool with an gringo friend, and I remember one morning I was playing “Caribe Atómico,” Aterciopelados’ fourth album.

As he got in the car, I listened for a minute, and then asked point blank: “What is this? This is freaking awesome!”

That morning I realized Aterciopelados was a long way from their first album, “Con el corazón en la mano,” an underground Bogota punk classic. While “El Dorado,” their second effort, was a clear transition from punk to rock, and “La Pipa de la Paz” was a less seamless transition from rock to the prototypical “rock en español” pop sound, “Caribe” marked the begining of the band’s affair with experimentation, while defining thier sound.

Laced with samples, studio beats, DJ scratches, layered on top of the band’s rock riffs, “Caribe” came along when the band solidified it’s philosophy of redefining their sound with every production, whilst keeping Andrea Echeverry’s knack for kitch lyrics a central part of the composition. (Her lyrics would soon evolve to a more polished activist prose from a mother/environmentalist perspective, as “Caribe” was the first album to have a conscious message about the environment).

After “Caribe” the band struggled to maintain a fresh perspective with each release. “Gozo Poderoso” was a solid effort that capitalized on the experimentation factor of “Caribe” while concentrating on delivering pop goodness.

And following “Evolución,” their greatest hits album, was “Oye,” in which the band tried to reinvent the wheel for a third time. My sense is that the “Caribe Atómico” sound was well received by critics and fans, and while they toned the experimentation down, Andrea and Hector decided this was their sound and that’s what they were going to work with from here on out.

At this point, in about 2005, both Andrea and Hector released solo efforts that, as it so happens with many bands that produce solo spin-offs, were average at best.

Fortunately for their fans, both Echeverry and Buitrago realize that they’ll get the most mileage working under the Aterciopelados brand, and with “Rio”, they’ve made the most solid, well-rounded album of their careers. There’s room for activism, for classic Andrea lyrics, for experimentation, and even for overtly pop rhythms.

The album is easy to listen from start to finish; Andrea’s voice is even throughout, and she’s mastered the art of effectivly marrying clever lyrics and armonious chord changes: “El sol-e-ci-to calien-ta mi es-que-le-ti-co,” classic Echeverry.

As always, the innovation and experimentation factor is drawn from guest appearances, and continuing with the same nationalistic pride that’s been the staple for fellow Colombian artists, they’ve collaborated with other Colombian musicians to inject a bit of the native “tropi pop” genre (see Fonseca, Mauricio y Palo de Agua, and to some extent, Carlos Vives).

It would be an exercise in futility to try and rank their top three albums, as their sound has evolved so much since “Con el corazón en la mano;” a better exercise perhaps is to choose three albums that will give a first-time listener a sense of how much the band has grown professionally and artistically. And so, “El Dorado” would be your choice for early punk-rock, “Caribe” would be your can’t-miss ablum, and “Rio” is their solid, veteran effort.

Listen to samples from the album on the band’s blog, iTunes or on emusic.com