It’s taken me three days to listen to the album enough for me to figure out where I wanted to go with the review. La Casa Azul, an indie pop band from Spain, released their first album in 2000 under the name El Sonido Efervescente de la Casa Azul (The Effervescent Sound of the Blue House).
This first album of La Casa Azul sounds like it belongs as part of a cartoon, or better yet, Japanese animation. People have attempted to describe the band as The Beach Boys meets ABBA in Japan. And honestly, that might be very close to describing them.
The first track, which is just called “Intro” is the sound effect of pouring a carbonated beverage in a bar setting with ambient background noise then jumps into the second track which I do feel is probably the best track on the album. “Hoy Me Has Dicho Hola por Primera Vez” (Today you said hello to me for the first time) is a pretty fun little track that again sounds like we would hear it in an episode of “Speed Racer.”
The next five tracks seem to follow on par with where the band starts. Everything is fast, funky, fun, and almost carnival-like. The final song of the 8-track mini-album is “Bonus Track.” That is what the name of the song is called. The song is completely different than anything else on the album. It starts with a piano verse then goes into a 70’s style pop song that sounds like you might hear next to Air Supply or Simon and Garfunkel.
With everything I heard on this first album, it’s hard to say if I like it or not. I chose to go back to the beginning before reviewing the band’s current album, which I love. This allows me to listen to the band from the beginning and how they grow over the next two decades. El Sonido Efervescente de la Casa Azul is what it is. It’s odd and it’s fun.
Since that day, I have been study Latin pop and rock music and have become a Latin pop music historian through the publishing of articles, fanzine, and websites. My goal is to teach people about Latin pop music and the history behind it with my website, Siempre En Domingo.
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