El Guincho feat. Javiera Mena - "Novias"

During the weekend, our inbox flooded with emails from readers asking about an out-of-nowhere collaboration between house favorites El Guincho and Javiera Mena. Apparently the track received a quiet run on Mexican FM airplay last week. The pairing of these pop virtuosos shouted historic (both artists have had #1 albums with us) and, although we were hoping for a new track made from scratch (to prevent all aural and sentimental attachment), this is still material worthy of some excitement. This collaboration comes just in time for Mena's planned U.S. tour and El Guincho's current visit across Latin America. Well, to be fair, we could hardly call this a collaboration because its tags should read more on the lines of, "the Javiera Mena Remix."

This new edit of Pop Negro’s catchy as hell “Novias” (premiered by Spain’s Esta Pasando!) is a bit misplaced: it's spotty in its production, conservative on every turn (for a rework), and perhaps even unnecessary. But it does push the right buttons when expanding its percussion lines into an interestingly dense, boy meets girl narrative. The jumpy, almost uncomfortable vocals by Mena make this version seem more like a b-side out of Piratas de Sudamerica than something from the almost flamboyant Pop Negro. Yes, this is forgettable and middling at best, considering we're talking about indie royalty, but El Guincho doesn’t collaborate too often, and we’re glad he’s chosen ladies like Julieta Venegas (“Mientes”) and Javiera Mena for his intercontinental affairs.