For over 25 years, the Argentinian rock band Bersuit Vergarabat has been making music and performing for fans. With 13 albums under their belt, Bersuit Vergarabat released their newest album La Nube Rosa on CD and via digital music outlets such as Spotify, where we had the opportunity to listen to the album and learn about the band.
Formed in 1988 under the name, Henry y la Palangana, but the band’s name changed many times over the years as they created words up that did not have meaning, including the name Seria Soneub, which was Buenos Aires spelled backward. Finally, the band settled on the name Bersuit Vergarabat, which I still have no clue what it means. After two albums of underground offensive rock music, the band began experimenting with Latin rhythms such as the cumbia; but the band’s lyrics remained controversial with social and political problems going on in the band’s country of Argentina.
Out of 13 tracks, 3 songs hinder the fluid blend of the songs on Bersuit Vergarabat’s “La Nube Rosa”
I am not a huge fan of hard rock, so the first two songs off the album, La Nube Rosa, were a turn-off for me; but once past those, the next few songs were actually enjoyable and more civil for my pop music-loving ears. The vocalist for the band, Alberto Verenzuela has a decent voice for the group’s sound. Albert was not the original lead vocalist for the band. In 2007, Gustavo Cordera left the group to pursue a solo career of his own. After listening to both voices, I tend to think Alberto has a unique edge over Gustavo and is easier on the eardrums.
Argentinian rock is a world all on its own and will take some time to explore it all, but Bersuit Vergarabat’s “La Nube Rosa” might be a decent place to start, especially if you are used to hearing bands that have more of a US appeal because of the use of their rhythmic beats. It is not just a straight alternative rock like Soda Stereo, which is my first experience with Argentinian rock. That cumbia flair is seen in bands like many of Juanes’s popular tracks. It has the same beats to it, especially in the group’s title track, “La Nube Rosa”.
For the most part, the album has a complete sense of alt-rock; if you take away the first two tracks and then this random track in the middle of the album, “No Vengan”. These three songs feel like they belong on a completely different album and their vibe doesn’t blend fluidly with the 10 tracks. Having a song like “No Vengan”, in which the vocals get deeper and almost begin to yell at the audience, is an injustice to the album as a whole. I guess that is what stopped me from giving this album a higher rating. It’s out of place and hurts my ears after the lighter feel many tracks.
It’s not to say that I will explore Bersuit Vergarabat a little bit more thanks to this album. You can too by following them on Twitter at @BersuitOK.
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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