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The debut full length by McAllen’s Gustavo Bañuelos, or Gusto Gusto, is a collection of neurotic love ballads that are hauntingly nostalgic, yet achingly timeless. It’s indie rock at its most versatile and refined. There is anthemic pop, cathartic disco, and new wave quirkiness weaving in and out of this vividly colorful world, but also dark clouds of self-doubt and anxious questioning looming over.

The rhythm section throughout is a huge factor in this album’s engagement, whether it makes you sway in your seat with headphones on or adds more fuel for a nightly car ride. The springy bass lines in New Laughs New Jokes are irresistibly nimble. After a gracefully soft introduction, a dark danceable bass groove crashes in to steal the show in Losing Glow, and with the song’s ghostly effects and sparkling atmosphere, it stacks up well against Jessie Ware’s mascara-teared disco of last year. Some drum patterns feel playfully lifted from pop music from the 50’s to 80’s, while the punchy fills and full kit of a rock band add more strength throughout the album.

The hazy chorused guitars and airy synths add mystique to the catchiest of melodies. The ethereal wall of guitar strums and hums of Picket Fence smoothly contrast with the song’s upbeat chorus. The icy string-pluck synth in Luna is beautifully sorrowful enough to conjure up years of regret in just its 30 second opening.

While many of today’s musicians romanticize the sounds of the past in contrived efforts, Gusto Gusto invokes near universal memories that feel truly archetypal. The 50’s pop backing vocals and swooning chords of Lovers Lane has the feel of a classic slow dance with a high school sweetheart. The somber glitching vocals at the end of Flowers sound like fading into obscurity, like being forgotten by a potential lover forever.

Despite all the dense instrumentation and production, Bañuelos’s voice shouldn’t be overlooked. He’s not a particularly strong singer, but with enough treatment and vehemence, his solemn baritone can turn to honeyed falsetto and overdubbed bliss, especially in the sing-along-worthy lead single Be Nice (Every Now & Then).

It’s a multifaceted experience — sadness in the brightest moments, and divine light at the darkest points as well. Self-deprecated musing and despondent reminiscing are given an impressively rich and dynamic soundtrack that’s true to the album’s name.

Score: 9/10

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