After a prolific 2020 that saw
Junior H issue five EPs and albums and a slew of viral videos, he kicks off the new year with
$ad Boyz 4 Life.
Junior H is one of the architects of the corridos tumbados (trap corridos) movement; as such, he's constantly experimenting with its sound and nowhere more so than here. His spiky, deeply rhythmic requinto guitar-playing style is among the most recognizable in Mexican Regional music. Here, he weds its rawness to gritty production and loads of reverb in a collection of moody, mostly downtempo, and often deeply moving ballads. On the title track, an overamped electric bass joins requinto and electric guitar, melding the ranchera waltz and psychedelic cumbia. The mix of layered electric and requinto guitar interplay on "Por Dentro" transforms a trap waltz into languid indie rock. Single "La Bestia" infuses a slow tumbado corrido with cumbia and the blues to underscore its tragic romantic scenario. "Fvck" zips up traces of tango, flamenco, and trap into a syncopated corrido drenched in blues. Closer "Lamento Boliviano" exists in the rough seams between trap urbano, cumbia, and dub reggae, all underscored by jazzy guitar breaks from
Junior H.
Jimmy Humilde's sometimes raw, always adventurous production, combined with the artist's ambitious compositions, arrangement choices, and virtuoso playing make
$ad Boyz 4 Life an infectiously listenable yet iconoclastic album that will certainly appeal to corridos tumbados fans, but also to a large swath of the Mexican Regional audience too. On
$ad Boyz 4 Life,
Junior H uncovers the place where artificial genre lines meet, blur, then disappear. ~ Thom Jurek