Talkie Talkie

Talkie Talkie is a triumphant follow-up to their debut. It sparkles intensely has tonnes of shiny charisma and sustains its shape while trying new things in the second half.

Talkie Talkie builds a cohesive, immersive experience, where each song represents a segment of a larger narrative. Through this experience, Los Bitchos challenge the conventions of rock through sound and representation.

It’s as if every track on Talkie Talkie is the perfect accompaniment for the inevitable action-comedy scene set in a disco: It’s too loud to talk, and everybody’s having a good time while the protagonists are hard at work.

They never clear the chateau dancefloor, and they add flashes of '80s synths on tracks like "Don't Change," video game music on "Kiki, You Complete Me," glockenspiel and fluttery effects on the mysterious "It's About Time," and a sense of urgency on the fiery "La Bomba." It all makes for a good time for all while at the same time offering to recede nicely into a groove-heavy background as needed.

Talkie Talkie benefits from a sharpening of focus even if the instrumental foursome remain determined to recombine such normally disparate elements as sun-scorched psych, Caribbean rhythms, Turkish disco and the kind of rock bravura rarely captured outside of an ’80s movie soundtrack. [Oct 2024, p.31]