MAGICOS JUEGOS DEL TIEMPO

Every time I pull out this album for a spin, which hasn't been that often admittedly, my first reaction is wow this is much better than I remembered, but after a few minutes, reality sets in. This is an album full of beautiful sounding songs that seem to be going somewhere, but by and large fail to live up to their promise. If you follow my reviews you know how I love concurrent male and female vocals, and this effort by Mia is one long inter gender serenade, proving that those parameters alone are not enough to satisfy me. The voices of Liliana and Alberto tend to be on the precious side, and any edge is reserved for some of the instrumental runs such as the organ in Antiguas campanas de pueblo and the guitars in the album's epic Archipielagos de Guernaclara, resulting in a dichotomy that the band is unable to reconcile. In other areas, the folkloric sound is precariously balanced with classical styled piano and tends to fall off the precipice.

The best material is that which demonstrates an integration of the various ideas expounded upon willy nilly on other tracks. In particular "Crisalida, mi ninia" and "Corales de la cantata Saturno" hit all the sweet spots. The live bonus tracks show a bit of cutting loose on the part of the singers, with the best being "Caja del viento", but some of the vocal histrionics on the rest of the bonus material, while impressive, sound a bit loony, almost as if they finally got cut loose and decided to make the most of it. But to be honest, a lot of this album is just plain boring and slow moving, except when it gets boring and noodling. I suppose one could call Mia eclectic, but to me they are mostly missing in action.