Consumer Guide Album

Calle 13: Los de Atras Vienen Conmigo [Norte, 2008]
You don't have to speak Spanish to conclude that this arty, political San Juan rap duo deserve their rocketing reputation--I sure can't, though when I squint at the booklet my puny recognition vocabulary helps. But you do have to immerse and concentrate--and accept that you'll miss most of what's going on even then. They're reggaeton only by association, a lot further from Daddy Yankee's hey-mami dancehall than the Roots were from Dr. Dre's jeep-pimping funk. By all accounts and the little I can work out, their lyrics are playfully associative and outrageously filthy. But for gringos, their humor resides almost entirely in Visitante's out-there arrangements and Residente's overt vocal comedy, as on the Balkanized "Fiesta de Locos." If some promotional visionary were to provide trots, that might change. But as it is, big guests Café Tacuba and Ruben Blades are too mainstream to launch Calle's 2008 model into the surrealist stratosphere. B+