Defining where musical genres begin and end has led to a lot of arguments, but Jarabe de Palo vocalist Pau Dones believes he's got it figured out.
"There's Latin pop, which is what Selena and Ricky Martin do," he said. "Then there's rock en Espaol, which I define as American-style rock done in Spanish. Then there's Latin rock, which is a fusion of styles, which is what we do."
On the Barcelona, Spain, group's fourth album, "Bonito," Jarabe augments its organic, bluesy rock with Latin styles. As the title (in English, "pretty") implies, it also opted for an optimistic outlook.
"We're living through a time where everything you see is negative, bad vibes, wars, violence, injustice," Dones said. "But in the world there are also things that are fine, things that make it all worthwhile. Perhaps that's why the mix contains Brazilian music, Colombian cumbia, Mexican corrido and Afro-Caribbean music from Cuba."
Jarabe's love of Brazilian music and Latin jazz has made it one of the few Spanish rock groups to make Billboard's Tropical/Salsa Airplay chart.
Over a Kool and the Gang-meets-So Pra Contrariar beat, the title track and first single lists people and places that make life worthwhile, not unlike the 2001 list-song "Me Gustas Tu" by fellow Barcelonian Manu Chao.
"For me ('Bonito') is a samba-funk," Dones said. "The song talks about the people who make the world keep turning. The winner, the loser, the truth-teller, the good listener, the empathetic one."
Keeping with the positive theme, the "Bonito" track "Bailar" urges defiant hopefulness in the face of day-to-day indignities.
But the group keeps its intellectual reputation alive with "Las Cruces de Tijuana," which refers to the Tijuana memorial for undocumented Mexican immigrants. An unusual huapango rock, the song dreams of an open-border future and wonders why there's no memorial for undocumented Moroccan immigrants who perish on their way to Spain.
The group's previous album, 2001's "De Vuelta y Vuelta," produced three moderately successful singles—the pensive title track, the bluesy "Dos Das en la Vida" and the hip-hop tinged "Tiempo." But it didn't match the sales of the 1997 debut "La Flaca" or 1999 follow-up "Depende."
"The last album, 'De Vuelta y Vuelta,' which I think is the best of the three, didn't get as far," Dones said. "It was harder because it was a more intimate record. But this time we've changed direction. We wanted to say more optimistic things, transmit happiness."
Another impediment to big sales here is that the group's faraway base makes United States tours sporadic at best. But Dones said a tour of the Americas is tentatively scheduled for November and December.
The rest of the band includes Jordi Mena, guitar; Quino Bejar, percussion; Maria Roch, bass; Jorge Rebanaque, keyboards; and Alex Tenas, drums.