Beto Quintanilla, like most other "hardcore" narco-corrido artists and unlike those who found mainstream success (e.g.,
Los Tigres del Norte), did not really evolve over his recording career. As a result, one can't recommend this disc above or below any of his others.
Quintanilla emerged more or less fully formed, recording as a solo artist in the last two decades of his life (he died from apparently natural causes in his fifties), his dark sparse style and narco imagery a winning formula from the get-go. He wrote his own corridos, full of themes of fatalism, violence, and betrayal. He sang them in a scrupulously unprofessional voice, a slurred punk rock snarl with the unique distinction of being offbeat as much as it was off-key. He always sounded drunk, from sadness as much as from alcohol. His conjunto group unpretentiously chugged along in what were mostly dirge-like waltzes. In other words, this is the real folk-blues -- i.e., it provides the same kind of rush to the music collector who longs for new experiences.
Quintanilla's discs consistently and reliably transport the listener to the new "Wild West," full of desolate landscapes, SUVs, and guns. ~ J. Chandler