top 100 reasons that El Gran Silencio's Super Riddim Internacional Vol. 1 is the best album of the year, #'s 11-19

11. Because it is proof that not every great Latin record has to be produced by Gustavo Santoallalo.

12. Because it is almost 64 minutes long and this is a perfect album length to me these days. Some people like their albums to come in under 40 minutes, but those people are high.

13. Because they really know how to END a song. This is the problem with a lot of other albums these days, either the corny fade or the shamble to a stop or the repeat and then blam...every song ends differently, every ending is perfectly appropriate here.

14. Because, like Mama Said Knock You Out, this is a hard-sounding record that contains no profanity whatsoever. (As far as I can tell...but no, nothing objectionable. And it's in Spanish, mostly, so even if there were bad things here, I probably wouldn't understand them. Well, I would, but my kids wouldn't.) Don't get me wrong -- I love swearing. But you don't have to, and EGS chooses not to, and they still sound tough and rrrrrrrrrrready to rrrrrrrrrrumble.

15. Because half of these songs sound like covers but none of them are. Instant classics, more like it. I know that cannot be, it's a tautology, but screw it.

16. Because none of you have heard it, almost none anyway, so it sounds cool when I say it. I've been saying it on ILX since the spring, but no one else there has heard it. No one at any music site has reviewed it, except Billboard -- hell, even AMG has no review up for it. But they hardly ever do for Latin albums. NO ONE EVER DOES, just about, unless they're known quantities. But how, after Chuntaros Radio Poder are these guys not known quantities? Why are they not famous all over the US and world? Well, it OBVIOUSLY ISN'T ANY KIND OF PREJUDICE AGAINST MEXICANS AND/OR MEXICO. Because we know that doesn't exist.

Don't we know that? Don't we? ...

17. Because "Cumbiamuffin" is an excellent songtitle, and (as Chuck E. pointed out in the V.Voice) it also has a nice little sexual reference part to it. I of course didn't get this at first. I am as innocent and pure as the driven snow.

18. Snow is flying around outside even as I publish this, probably three inches or so, not sure. In weather like this, it is VERY IMPORTANT to be bigging up a record that sounds like it's 100 degrees outside. In fact, when I get home, I'm going to put on shorts and blast this record and make dinner for everybody. Then I'm going to put on sensible layers and shovel all this innocent pure driven crapola. Damn, I am SO moving out of here.

19. Because this dude found Haibun because of this really long project, which will be over soon I swear to God. Once this is done I am going to start writing a series of haiku about NBA players, as a kind of challenge, so maybe I should stretch things out a bit. Nah, I won't.