Freedom Rocks

To the wide U.S. audience who may not recognize the rockers in the new video from Chilean band La Ley, it should be said that indeed the group was not like this back in 1989. When they released their first album in Chile, they emphasized their good looks, plus a keyboard-driven, romantic sound à la Duran Duran. Look at them today, and you might think of La Ley as Latin rockeros heavily influenced by other European rock acts such as U2 or even Depeche Mode. What you certainly have is a band that never disowned those influences, and survived more than a few critics’ jabs. A band that was supposed to disappear almost ten years ago, when guitarist and main songwriter Andres Bobe died in a motorcycle accident, but managed to carry on, with most of the songwriting now settled on singer Beto Cuevas’s shoulders.

In the transitional period, the survivors transplanted to Mexico and released a couple of blockbuster albums that gave them cred by the end of the last decade. Then two other key members, keyboardist Rodrigo Aboitiz and bassist Luciano Rojas, packed up and departed. Reduced to a trio, Cuevas, drummer Mauricio Claveria, and guitarist Pedro Frugone — the last three members to join the band — ended up harvesting all the previous efforts with the release of Uno, the album that they describe as a new beginning. They grabbed a Grammy in the alternative Latin rock category, and a bunch of nominations for the Latin Grammys. Also in 2001 a successful MTV Unplugged album was released — and was rewarded with a 2002 Latin Grammy and two of MTV Latin America’s tongue-shaped statuettes. The band in addition prepared the new album that today drives it around the U.S. in a twenty-plus-city tour.

According to Cuevas, the title is ironic — Libertad means freedom — and was inspired by the precious right that everybody seems to have lost after 9/11. That’s the fuel behind this release, which relies on a strong guitar sound that for the first time shows La Ley has not only a freedom-loving soul but a rocker heart.