NorteñoBlog

Welcome back to the Mexican radio charts! This week, in a startling change of pace, NorteñoBlog finds the Mexican airwaves awash in amor and sentimiento. Rather than fight this impulse by singling out the odd song about lavish lifestyles or dancing horses or whatever, the Blog has decided to embrace it. I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that you open your cold dead heart to at least one of the touchy feely offerings listed below.

At #7 we find “Que Bonito es Querer,” the latest declaration of sierreño amor from Ulices Chaidez y Sus Plebes. The chorus is a decent minor-key circle-of-fifths thing, not unlike “Autumn Leaves,” that allows Chaidez to show off his smoky upper register. The rest of the song would be better if it had any hint of a beat. The video is some straight-up Disney castle cosplay, stuffed with decorum and meaningful gazes and painstakingly plotted ballroom dances — you know, all the places where love goes to die flourishes. Chaidez’s bandmates and sombrero are as absent as princess farts. NO VALE LA PENA

At #8, the balladeers in Banda Carnaval refuse to be anyone’s “Segunda Opción,” especially the segunda opción of a no-good two-timing kiss-stealing mujer. Watch out, faithless ones! When Banda Carnaval’s clarinet players wriggle their eyebrows at you, the nausea can be overwhelming. NO VALE LA PENA

They could take heartbreak lessons from Alejandro Fernandez ft. Los Tigres del Norte, who present an entire heart cauterization program in their duet “Para Sacarte de Mi Vida”, #9 this week. The Springsteens of norteño team up with the… um… Roseanne Cash of ranchera (Maybe? I mean, Alejandro’s too popular to be Shooter Jennings) for a stomp-clap-snappy pop ballad that’s atypical, at least for Los Tigres. The lyrics soar past sentimiento into dark emo/self-help guru territory, with the bereft narrators diving headfirst into their pain, killing their hearts, removing their tattoos, completely rerouting their jogging paths, all in a last-ditch effort to be reborn as some beautiful, heart-intact horse-tiger hybrid. (I paraphrase.) It’s catchy, and Los Tigres acquit themselves well in this less familiar setting. VALE LA PENA and Pick to Click:

At #10, the man with the continent’s best voice, Julión Álvarez, may have been too occupied with dandling his new baby (or thawing his assets) to film a video for his boring tears-of-a-clown ballad “La Sonrisa Obligatoria.” (Here’s a concert review/interview where, showing a somewhat cooler head but no less optimism than the current U.S. president, he claims his legal issues are close to resolution.) NO VALE LA PENA

The Blog has already thrice forgotten Banda Los Recoditos’ “Tres Recuerdos.” NO VALE LA PENA

Bronco… now there’s a name I’ve not heard for many years. The ’80s-’90s grupero romantics appear at #13, crooning a string-laden ode to last fall’s Pixar protagonist, “El Corrido de Miguel Rivera,” the boy who plays guitar and sees dead people in Coco. I really enjoyed Coco — besides its bright detail and the sense that every frame was swarming with life, it seems to have depicted Mexican life in a way that resonated with actual Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. This includes the swooning romanticism of its music — not always the Blog’s monedita de oro, but Bronco makes it work. VALE LA PENA

Almost as romantic is the violin-driven power ballad at #15, “Para Morir Feliz,” by the hyphy-not-hyphy corrideros Los Inquietos del Norte. Remember a couple years ago when trendpieces noted that pop choruses were giving way to “pop-drops” as locuses of musical excitement? Never a band to let a good movimiento go unexploited, Los Inquietos read those trendpieces, took them to heart, and created “Para Morir Feliz” — only, instead of a pop-drop, they follow their non-chorus with a duet for accordion and fiddle. VALE LA PENA

These are the Top 20 “Popular” songs in Mexico, as measured by monitorLATINO. Don’t confuse “Popular” with the “General” list, which contains many of the same songs but also “One Kiss,” new Nicky Jam, and “To My Love,” the not-really-new one from Blog cumbia faves Bomba Estéreo.

1. “Calidad y Cantidad” – La Arrolladora Banda
2. “Tu Postura” – Banda MS
3. “Mitad y Mitad” – Calibre 50
4. “Antecedentes de Culpa” – Alfredo Olivas
5. “Necesitaría” – Lucero
6. “Contigo” – Los Elementos de Culiacán
7. “Que Bonito es Querer” – Ulices Chaidez y Sus Plebes
8. “Segunda Opción” – Banda Carnaval
9. “Para Sacarte de Mi Vida” – Alejandro Fernandez ft. Los Tigres del Norte
10. “La Sonrisa Obligatoria” – Julión Álvarez y Su Norteño Banda

11. “Tres Recuerdos” – Banda Los Recoditos
12. “Buscábamos Lo Mismo” – Los Plebes del Rancho de Ariel Camacho
13. “El Corrido de Miguel Rivera” – Bronco
14. “En Eso No Quedamos” – Banda Los Sebastianes
15. “Para Morir Feliz” – Los Inquietos del Norte
16. “Un Adios Es De Dos” – La Mafia ft. Ricky Muñoz
17. “El Prestamo” – Maluma
18. “Dónde Estarás” – Raymix
19. “Seremos” – El Bebeto
20. “Ya Tiene Novio Mi Ex” – Cristian Jacobo

¡Adios!
“Al Cien y Pasadito” – Jorge Medina
“Tenemos Que Hablar” – Banda Tierra Sagrada
“Vengo de Engañarte” – Marco Flores y La Jerez
“Me Dejé Llevar” – Christian Nodal
“Entre Beso y Beso” – La Arrolladora Banda
“El Aroma de Tu Piel” – Gerardo Ortiz
“Esta Es Tu Cancion” – La Adictiva
“Íntimamente” – Banda El Recodo
“Que Tontería” – La Séptima Banda
“El Color de Tus Ojos” – Banda MS (26 semanas!)
“Fijate Que Si” – Edwin Luna y La Trakalosa de Monterrey
“Sentimientos” – Alicia Villarreal ft. María José
“Ese” – Los Cardenales de Nueva Leon
“Zapateado Endemoniado” – Marco Flores y La Jerez
“Tiempo” – Banda los Recoditos
“Vengo a Aclarar” – El Fantasma
“Si Dios Me Lleva Con Él” – Los Alegres de la Sierra
“Con Los Ojos Cerrados” – Alan Pineda
“Me Hubieras Dicho” – Joss Favela