Music– Para Mi – Cuco

Release Date– July 26th, 2019

In his debut album entitled “Para Mi,” alternative artist Omar Banos (Cuco) takes on a different kind of music and shows how he can work well with variety. 

While having an eclectic style, Cuco manages to create a type of music that a wide variety of listeners could enjoy. He manages to mix in many different aspects that all seem to work together.

Para Mi is labeled as his first official album, but Cuco has about 6 other collections of music. Based on other music of his that I have listened to, I can conclude that he has made better work before. Some songs in Para Mi are great. However, not all of them meet my expectations. 

Let’s start on a positive note. The songs on this album that deserve the most recognition are Bossa No Se, Feelings, Hydrocodone, Far Away From Home, Best Friend, and Do Better. I chose these specifically for this category because they met certain criteria. All of them had some sort of singing in them. They also had a certain sense of musicality to them that I enjoyed. Either upbeat or slow and sweet.

The songs that should be considered OK but not loveable are Love Tripper, Ego Death In Thailand, and Brokey the Pear. All three of these were not awful by any means. I just wasn’t a fan of how the songs sounded completely, or I would not want to listen to them daily. 

And finally, the songs that I probably won’t listen to again. These include Keeping Tabs, Perihelion, and Room Tone. I truly believe that you have to have these types of songs in any Cuco album just because it is expected. I have nothing against any of them, but I don’t think I need to hear them again unless it’s just as background music.

My final thoughts on this album are all over the place. I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I think that most of the songs are good, and once again Cuco has blessed my ears with good music. However, some of them sound the same to me and I don’t know how I feel about that. I would recommend Para Mi to anyone who wants relaxing music to listen to, or if alternative/lo-fi is a favorite of yours.

Songs:

Keeping Tabs

• I probably wouldn’t listen to this again. It’s not awful; it is just repetitive and not the best that he can do. 3/10

Bossa No Se

• My current favorite song. It is upbeat and has a good mix of the typical cuco sound and also a rap segment that we only hear in select songs from other albums. 10/10

Perihelion

• It’s fine. It sounds like most of his other songs’ background music, but there is no singing so if I were to listen to it again it would probably be in a study playlist. Would not want to hear on a daily basis. 2/10

Feelings

• I love the sound of this one. It sounds like the intro to a dating show, and all around it’s a cute song. One of my favorites on this album. 8/10

Lovetripper

• It is a five-minute song that should have been three instead. Sounds like the kind of music that you could fall asleep to. Very relaxing. 5/10

Ego Death In Thailand

• I like the experimental feel to this. It sounds like he put a bunch of stuff that he didn’t think would go well together all in the same place, and somehow it came out good. It makes the listener feel calm. 6/10

Hydrocodone

• This is easily one of my new favorites on the album. It’s just another sad song to add to my collection, but this time it’s CUCOOOO what’s not to love? 9/10

Far Away From Home

• The intro to this kind of gave me Mamma Mia! Vibes for some reason, and i’m not complaining about it. I thoroughly enjoy this song and would listen to it often. 9/10

Brokey The Pear

• This is a cute little interlude that sounds like it would be good background music to a video of a river or something. 5/10 

Best Friend

• It is impossible to listen to this song without being happy. Some parts of it sound like Bossa No Se, which makes me like it for obvious reasons. I can’t believe I have not recognized its greatness until now. 8/10

Room Tone

• This would probably be another song to fall asleep to. There is a pattern when it comes to most cuco music, and that is that he focuses on the music in the background a lot. I think he just comes up with some ideas, but doesn’t know how to put words to it and then just decides to put it in the album anyway. There are really short interludes that he is throwing in that just don’t really have a purpose, but, at least his ideas are not being wasted. 2/10

Do Better

• Just reading the lyrics is making me happy. He seems so genuine throughout the song, and it causes the audience to develop a good relationship with him because of it. I loooove this one. 8/10

Final Thoughts

• This album definitely has some gems, but I like his album from 2018 named wannabewithyou more. Will definitely be obsessing over some of the songs on this album for the next few days.