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The standout from my tenure is undoubtedly Miranda’s “Don,” a kinda-teenpop single from Argentina that confidently threw together a few of my favorite things: electro blips, swinging guitar, sweet background vocals, and open space that got filled in more and more as the song progressed, with each verse adding a singing guitar line or more layered harmonies like a party starting slow but with promise, and filling with people until it radiates warmth, happiness, and good cheer.
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"Don" is an exercise in the basics done to sexually ambiguous Latino perfection—supernatant vocal harmonies, stupidly simple guitar school solos, and bleeping keyboards as delicate and urgent as a gang of fairy bailiffs. When it comes to great Argentine works of art in 2006, it's second only to Cambiasso's goal against Serbia & Montenegro.
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How economically the treats are dispensed: first, you're taken with the blippy intro, then there's the vocal ' oh wait, there's harmony, this is tickling my thigh ' and before you know it you're delivered into the falsetto vocal line of the chorus; wrapped tightly in wax paper, a bunch of flash animation butterflies pile out of a tub full of candy Valentine's Day hearts.
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here's so many wonderful things you could take route 20 to the lake every weekend it's warm and still never be able to explain just how they got the guitar tone so perfect or how the guitar's shift from stopped power chords to chiming picking in the second verse registers as such an aesthetically apropos move, or why those cooing backing vocals are only there for so short a time.
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Fabulous concoction of a relentless disco rhythm, 1981 video game beeps and bleeps, Helmet-like guitar stabs, and Spanish indie boy/girl singing. And that's just the first minute. Glee on a stick for me. BUT NO HANDCLAPS.
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I don't understand much Spanish, but I do get the gist of "es un
soooolo / es un guitara de Lolo!," or at at least I do when it's followed by a sweet little guitar solo. Lyrics are almost entirely besides the point with a melody bomb like this - if anything, not knowing the words is only a detriment in that it makes it a little harder to sing along. But only a little bit!
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