PERSONA

Very few musicians have the ability to create a full band recording of a song, never mind a complete album, and have it sound good. Todd Rundgren comes to mind, but not many others. Alejandro Matos actually does a decent job of it on this album.

It's obvious that Matos' primary instrument is guitar, as that is most prevalent in every song. His songwiting is very good, especially with darky, heavy minor key (my favorite) riffs. His keyboards tend to be mostly washes, and fullness-enhancing chords, and his drums are all electronic, but he does a better than average job hiding their nature.

The biggest problem are Matos' vocals. Now I don't understand the lyric (I presume that they are in Spanish), so I can't comment on the content, but Matos' voice is a weakness. His delivery is reminiscent of Peter Hammill (very good), but his tone and strength of voice are more like David Byrne (not so good). I find that the wavering around the actual notes gets tedious at times.

But still, I do like the album. 3.5 stars