-For Vanessa a.k.a Rita.

When I first mentioned liking La Ley, my dad raised an eyebrow. He swore I would never listen to rock en español due to having bad experiences with the usual fans that were in my immediate circle (i.e. bullies).

Four years had passed since I was in junior high school. I chose a university as far as possible from the worst people in my previous school.  I was feeling much better about myself in many ways. In others, not so much. That’s the end of the teenage years, I guess. Way more awkward than people want to accept.

El Duelo was a big hit, but I thought it was too “obvious” of a song, as good as it is. Cielo Market was a much better hit, poppier but also rockier in comparison to El Duelo. It was Día Cero, with its electronic atmosphere, what really sold me La Ley. I didn’t expect that kind of song from a Latin American band, and I was super into it. Not a dance beat and not rock. Something in between.

A friend from my dad’s job was a massive rock fan and he would go to every single concert in Mexico. He usually helped get tickets to sold out shows and my dad usually went for his advice regarding whatever I was listening to. Barring one incident with Sepultura, my dad approved of every suggestion his friend had. Even with his help, La Ley’s shows were sold out, so I missed out on watching them live on their Invisible tour. And they were playing everywhere in Mexico.

My dad bought me the CD as a gift a few weeks before my birthday, and I took it to Tampico for holidays before summer school. I’d just recently changed majors from Communication Science (arts) to Electronic Communications (engineering), so the road was long if I wanted to catch up with my high school peers.

Long walks under the sweltering heat where tolerable with La Ley’s music. The rock songs were good, but again, it’s those moments when they test the waters of electronic instrumentation to spice up their music what truly shine. Animal, the album opener, is the closest to prog they would go, and it’s a hell of a choice. It really does set the stage for the album’s theme: our wanton desires.

Album closer 1 800 Dual lovingly closes this topic, now engaging with the theme of genre fluidity. It was a bit unheard of in Latin American music (sorry, I don’t feel comfortable with latinx) to talk about this particular topic, possibly still taboo these days. It’s almost a dance song, and the atmospheric ending is so beautiful.

I remember taking a trip to Mazatlán in late 96. Officially I was going on a symposium for entrepreneurship, but in reality I wanted to see a girl I fancied in high school. Nothing happened between us, but we had a good, fleeting friendship. Didn’t end in bad terms, we just grew apart, which was the most sensible ending possible.

I also started writing a novel on that trip, and although it took me almost 4 years to finish, it was cathartic for all the shit I had gone through in junior high school. One particular day I was looking at this yellow and purple sky during sunset. I took a photo and every time I see it, I think of those days, when healing was happening and I was madly in love with a band whose genre I never expected to enjoy.

-Sam J. Valdés López