Onda Vaselina had just gotten off their “banda” bandwagon and they were looking for a change, something that would make them relevant in the new era of music. Their members were growing up and there was a need to take the group in a different direction. How long could the group survive on singing covers of classic ’50s and 60’s songs and I don’t think the group could have survived with another “banda” album. So it was only fair to begin their new phase in mainstream pop music.
How they chose which members moved with the group’s new image, I am not sure. The current members of OV7 are not very vocal to replies on social media, so questions like this will go unanswered. The group moved 7 of its members and ditched the rest. With the group’s creator, Julissa being related to Luis De Llano, it only seemed logical to follow that model of group creating. Three boys and four girls, same as Timbiriche, came out with their first mainstream pop album, Hoy.
But it wasn’t going to be Timbiriche they would be competing with, they would be put up next to a pop group that came out a year earlier. Kabah released their first album the previous year and was basking in their own success with extremely hard dance moves and decent vocals. Onda Vaselina was going to have a lot of competition. With a combination of solos and duets, Onda Vaselina put together a decent pop album though it did lack the strong vocals that Kabah had.
The album began with an ear-piercingly annoying song, “El Vampiro Trasnochado”, making you want to turn off the album from track one. The girls’ voices were not in sync with each other during the 3 minutes of “Uh Ah’s” that overpowered the vocals of the male lead. It did get a little better. The songs that the male vocalists, Ari, Oscar, and Daniel, have a serious rock vibe going on with hard guitars and pounding drum lines. This differs from the softer pop stylings from the girl’s and the duets.
The major of the music is very flat and doesn’t have much depth in the editing. I love listening to music that has more of a 3D vibe when listening to it via headphones. The only place I really heard multi-layering of music and vocals were in the song, “Sube Y Baja”, which is probably one of the better songs off the album.
I think the group was coming up out of puberty and they hadn’t focused enough on their vocals and how they were come together, hoping they could rest on the laurels of their previous success and their fans would be there with open arms. I don’t think the album was all that successful, but it did give them a chance to continue to see if they could get better and have more success with a future album.
I did notice that the US version of the CD is different and is missing a song that the Mexican & Spain editions have. An eleventh song, “Mas De Lo Que Imagine” is on those versions. I was able to find a version of this song because I own the US version and I have to say that I am not missing anything. The vocals are horrible and the girls are so out of sync with each other. There is not a good harmony with them. I will stick with the US version.
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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