Niños Mutantes - El Sol De Invierno

What we can hear now on the current albums of Ninos Mutantes ("Las Noches De Insomnio" and "Naufragos" and possibly the next "El Futuro") is not what the band did 12 years ago. In the beginning of 2000's the music of the Granada-born mutant children was more upbeat, more loud and more driving. And "El Sol De Invierno" was a quintessence of these past years containing plenty of great songs which considerably differ one from another but never fall off the plate."La Ultima Vez" meets the listener with the 'quiet-loud' scheme worn out by grunge but here it sounds pretty fresh due to the catchy melody, the curling guitar passages and total absence of drug-infused gloom. In "En La Tierra" you could almost hear the echoes of Placebo's definitive album "Black Market Music" - but without this band's trademark depression and self-loathing. "El Corazon Es Un Cazador Solitario" easily flows two thirds of its timing like quasi-americana ballad and then dentro de nada explodes with guitar bursts. Even the electronic "Sigue La Luz" is strong enough to be not just a throwaway intermediate segue. The only misstep is "Algun Sitio, Algun Lugar" which is a bit too repetitive to work well.I can't tell you that this album is inventive or something like that. But here the band had upgraded 'good' to 'perfect' adding to the scheme their melodic gift and attention to details and all this prevented "El Sol De Invierno" from being "Super 8" 10 years late derivative.I don't know exactly what kind of splash this album caused - maybe none. Maybe it just promoted the band from the second league into the top indie bands of the state. But I suppose that the impact should be in setting the new standards of the powerful and catchy guitar-driven pop rock in Spain.The album was produced in two formarts - standard and extended with 3 bonus tracks. Two of them - "Ser Feliz" and "Manual De Autoayuda" - are amongst the best tracks of the album.