The newest Calexico album has been called their most poppiest and lots of reviews bemoan the lack of the mariachi styled tunes. However, this is imo the most polished album by them yet, trying a bit different style in songs like All Systems Red and Deep Down. Letter to Bowie Knife also is a pretty energetic and rockier number than Calexico's usual fare. With the exception of Smash all the songs are pretty memorable.
I wouldn't call it a better album than Across the Wire, but it is every bit as good.

Rating: 8/10

I haven't gotten into it at all. One of the biggest disappointments during the last months. Burns' voice sounds really slick. He's a great musician, but not a very good singer, or even songwriter I feel. Howe Gelb is much better in those things.

What??!!! I found it one of the easiest albums to get into. Touching on all kinds of styles they tried over their career... there isn't a single bad song and even the spicy stuff like Roka and Nom de Plume are excellent. The midway point to All Systems Down(the "...tear it all down and build it up again" line) is imo the best musical moment this year.

I like "Roka", but all the other songs were let downs. I'll try it again sometime, but I do believe they're much better in instrumental mariachi stuff, than in more normalish songbased stuff.

I thought this album was a bit of a letdown