Gepe – “Las flores”

Las flores is, perhaps, Café Tacvba’s best song. It is full of energy, poetry, and is as uniquely Café Tacvba as it is uniquely Mexican. The song is timeless, partially because it appropriates an ethereal huapango style and partially because it shatters conventions as only rock music can. Gepe’s cover in his album Ciencia Exacta pays homage to this classic over 20 years after Tacvba’s Re: masterpiece. The notable difference is Gepe’s Chilean appropriation, utilizing a traditional Andean charango in place of the son huasteco. The result is a lullaby, controlled but elegant, uniquely Chilean, and yet very loyal to the original.