January | 2014 | Airspeaker.com

Artist: Enrique Bunbury
Album: Palosanto
Released: October 29, 2013
http://www.enriquebunbury.com

Written by Raul Leon – @VillainMy
Airspeaker Album Rating: 3.5 out of 5 speakers

ENRIQUE BUNBURY…
In light of his latest album release Palosanto, I thought I’d take a few paragraphs to review the spanish lion man, singer-song writer, uber performer, Enrique Bunbury.

Enrique Bunbury, born Enrique Ortiz de Landázuri Yzarduy on August 11, 1967 in Zaragosa Spain has been gracing the world wide masses with his music and live performances since the early 80’s. After playing with a few initial early band incarnations Bunbury ultimately wound up being the front man to the historic spanish rock band Heroes del Silencio. From approximately 1984-1996 Heroes del Silencio earned world wide recognition and fame with massive album sales and massive world tours.

(In Rocktober of 1996 the Heroes del Silencio played their last show in Los Angeles until they would later reunite to play a greatest hits tour approximately 20 years later.)

HEROES DE SILENCIO
Enrique Bunbury’s solo career was born in 1997 when he recorded and released his first solo album Radical Sonora. This first attempt at solo creativity was a complete antithesis of the Enrique Bunbury the world had come to recognize while the front man for Heroes del Silencio. It was evident Bunbury made a conscious effort to clean his creative slate as he completely changed his physical appearance and went in a complete opposite direction with his musical efforts. Radical Sonora was a strong attempt at a fusion between Electronica and loud guitars. Radical Sonora though not very well received by the public (especially ALL the die hard Heroes fanatics),in my opinion, DID produce a few memorable tracks such as Alicia, Encadenados, and Alfa.

REVIEWERS NOTE
I was at one of the album signings for Enrique Bunbury’s solo album debut of Radical Sonora. Bunbury was very warm and thoughtful in his approach as a person. In retrospect, I suspect, although he fully believed in his attempt at a solo career and this NEW direction in music, he must have been scared shitless in the actualization that HE alone had to bear the weight of either his music’s success or utter dissapointment.

Two full years after his initial debut album, Bunbury released his follow up album Pequeno in 1999. The course of Bunbury’s solo career would change forever as this creative incarnation would catapult his career and music into a bonafide success. Bunbury, creatively reincarnated, was born and here to stay.

DISCOGRAPHY
Bunbury has released several albums since, in chronological order they are as follows: Radical Sonora, Pequeno, Pequeno Cabaret Ambulante (live), Flamingos, Una Cita en Flamingos (Live), El Viaje a Ninguna Parte, FreakShow (live), Hellville Deluxe, Las Consequencias, Gran Rex (Las Consequencias LIVE), Licenciado Cantinas, AND NOW PaloSanto.

Some memorable tracks off these albums include:
Algo en Comun, El Viento a Favor, Infinito, El Club de Los Imposibles, El Extranjero, Frente a Frente, Lady Blue, El Solitario, De Mayor, and Bailando con el Enemigo.

IN CONCLUSION
From Bunbury’s latest album, PaloSanto, I have thoroughly been enjoying the title track and first single Despierta, the celestial Mas Alto que Nosotros solo el Cielo, and the nostalgic El Cambio y la Celebracion. PaloSanto is an easy listening album with great accents in musical creativity and especially lyric content with Bunbury’s always recognizable and distinctive baritone roar. It’s an honest work, and sounds like an album that came very naturally to it’s creator. For the fans, it’s an album to fall in love with many times over. If you haven’t listened to much of Bunbury’s previous material, this album would be a good starting point as it captures the essence of Bunbury’s inexhaustible facets to his music. I simply admire the fact that this guy keeps putting out such quality work, time after time. In closing, quoting the Spanish Lion himself, “Hasta Siempre, que les vaya bien bonito!”