DUAL I

This is a very interesting proposition from Aly. I've been waiting for this album for a long time now, but back when I heard this album was going to be sung in Nahuatl ( a Mexican Native Language) I didn't knew what to expect... well... for sure I didn't expect this.

Except from the fact that the lyrics are sung in Nahuatl, this album is everything you know, everything you have heard, it is your comfort zone, it brings you home, right where you want to be... except not. As you listen, you think you know exactly were the composition is going and where it's coming from... from David Gilmour to Steve Vai, with hints of Yes, IQ, Supertramp, Metallica even Manuel M. Ponce... I'm sure you'll notice your own favorites in here without being able to finally pinpoint where everything is coming from. This feeling I'm talking about comes from Aly's ability in composition and conceptualization to take what he loves of several influences and make something totally new.

Being an Aly album you'd expect to hear that guitar virtuosity that characterizes him everywhere, but no... virtuosity is only displayed where it's needed which makes those passages more enjoyable rather having a full song without any spaces between notes.

The vocals on this album are great. One singer imposes herself right away, the other has a sweetness in her voice that makes the complexity of nahuatl phonetics really mellow.

This is a very enjoyable album from start to finish, a bit addictive for me I must say, I find myself playing it over and over again, looking for more details, those details make this a great album.