Las Tetris - Las Tetris (2017)

I had no idea what to expect when I fired up this album by Las Tetris, a band of women from Lima, Peru, but what I got was a punchy, jangly, at times chill, nostalgic 37 minutes of indie-emo goodness with twists of power pop and even punk that actually seem perfectly suited to Lima's cloudy skies. In music nerd terms it's like Sarah Records discovered mid- to late-2000s emo and is making a soundtrack to the suburban sprawl. Even that name is nostalgic! This album is from 2017 but sounds like it came out 10 years earlier, and of course I mean that as a compliment. The overall vibe, especially in the first half of the album, is on the chill side, and the band that most comes to mind is probably early Jimmy Eat World, but the influence of many bands from the height of emo's influence as a subgenre of 2000s/2010s indie rock can be heard. Most of the album is in Spanish with a few tracks in English. Sue me, cancel me, whatever, but I friggin' love hearing non-native English speakers singing in English with their accents. I never say that to make fun, and of course the singer(s) sound great here. I don't know, I just find it endearing.

Although you can tell this isn't a big-budget studio production, it doesn't affect the listening experience. The vocalists and harmonies are great, and I'll always be a sucker for those punky spoken parts. Any shortcomings resulting from the lack of a big production budget are made up for with the tight playing, inventive songwriting, and great use of effects, including a nerdy favorite of mine, the good ol' power pop chord progression with a spacey lead (early Weezer, anyone?).

About the production though, I will just say there were moments where I found myself wishing they were rocking out harder, but upon listening closely to the guitar and drums especially, I imagined that in a live setting it would actually hit much harder, especially a couple of tracks on the album's second half. Speaking of a live setting, it would be fun to see them live, and based on the album cover, all of them have long hair, which we can add to the list of reasons why it would be great for them to rock out harder. I still need to hear the rest of their music, but one more thing I will say about this album in general before wrapping up is that I would have liked to have heard more pop hooks in the vocals and, again, to hear them really rock out and crank up the heavy- and emo-meter in general.

It was nice to hear an album from only five years ago with so many elements from a genre of music I've kind of lost touch with, but that I will always enjoy because it's so nostalgic. I'm definitely in the target audience for this one. There were exceedingly few women front and center in the era of indie rock to which this album calls back, let alone all-women groups, and that is also a refreshing and lovely thing to see/hear. I definitely look forward to checking out the rest of their stuff. Although YouTube numbers are not reflective of how established/popular a band actually is and these women have been around for a while, they still deserve to have way more followers than they do on there, so go give them a listen, a like, and a follow.

Highlights: No me gusta el verano, Vas, Insomnia, It could be dangerous

For Fans Of: Early Jimmy Eat World, Sarah Records, Saves the Day, Weezer, Something Corporate, and other bands from the era of indie music when emo was a dominant trend.