MALO — Dos (review)

MALO — Dos album cover Album · 1972 · Latin Rock/Soul Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
dreadpirateroberts
Malo's second album gets a big shot of salsa.

On their debut, 'Malo' this San Francisco band were rockier and perhaps more adventurous in their efforts to blend Latin and rock music, with Jorge Santana's guitar having a prominent role, along with a more aggressive rhythm section lurking beneath the horn section.

Here, with 'Dos' the rock has been pared back and the salsa feel takes over. With a mostly new line-up, the sound of horns, percussion and percussion become the key, there's even a higher amount of instrumental songs this time around. This shift in direction is in itself highly enjoyable, however, this time around, the songwriting is not as strong. While the openers 'Momolombo' and 'Oye Mama' are quality tracks that remain catchy but still allow for some interplay between instruments, and 'Oye Mama' has probably the best vocal arrangement on the album (in Spanish) the rest of the songs are not as memorable.

'I'm For Real' is nice enough, and echoes the commercial appeal of their previous hit 'Suavecito' and 'Midnight Thoughts' is a soothing instrumental track featuring flute in the lead role. 'Hela' is a little too similar in feel to the rest of the tracks (despite a raging Santana solo) and 'Latin Bugaloo' suffers from a vocal line that feels a little like an afterthought. Otherwise it covers similar ground that is done better earlier in the album, again, despite some nice work from Santana.

This is not a disappointing album, but taken as a whole, it's simply not as strong as their first, even with the exciting change in sound. Three stars.
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