''La Isla Bonita'' is the twelfth studio album by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Deerhoof Deerhoof are an American musical group formed in San Francisco in 1994. They currently consist of founding drummer Greg Saunier, bassist and singer Satomi Matsuzaki, and guitarists John Dieterich and Ed Rodriguez. Beginning as an improvised noi ...

. Produced by former music journalist and Mr. Dream drummer Nick Sylvester, it was released on November 4, 2014 through

Polyvinyl Record Co. Polyvinyl Record Co. is an American independent record label headquartered in Champaign, Illinois. The label also has satellite offices in New York, Austin, and the Bay Area. Polyvinyl has put out over 400 releases to date. The Polyvinyl roster ...

The track "Exit Only" was released as the first single off the album on August 20, 2014. On September 10, 2014, Deerhoof shared the second track "Paradise Girls". The band embarked on a tour in support of the album in November 2014.

Background

The album's recording started when Deerhoof tried to write a track similar to their live cover of

Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first true punk rock group. Despite achieving a limited commercial appeal in the United ...

’ "Pinhead", which resulted in the track "Exit Only". Demo tracks were recorded for a week at guitarist Ed Rodriguez’s home in Oregon and sent to Nick Sylvester, who eventually produced the album. The album draws upon a wide array of influences, including

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...

The Flaming Lips The Flaming Lips are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1983 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The band currently consists of Wayne Coyne (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Steven Drozd (guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, vocals), Derek Brown (keyb ...

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...

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Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi music, lo-fi style, and became ...

the Roots The Roots are an American hip hop band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy F ...

Ric Ocasek Richard Theodore Otcasek (March 23, 1944 – September 15, 2019), known as Ric Ocasek, was an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He was the primary co-lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, songwriter, and frontman for the rock ...

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Janet Jackson Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and dancer. She is noted for her innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows. Her sound and choreog ...

, and

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

, with the album's title being a reference to Madonna's "

La Isla Bonita "La Isla Bonita" is a song by American singer Madonna from her third studio album '' True Blue'' (1986). Written and produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard, with additional lyrics by Bruce Gaitsch, the song was originally presented by Leonard ...

". On the same press release, drummer Greg Saunier stated:

Critical reception

''La Isla Bonita'' received positive reviews from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 77, which indicates "generally positive reviews", based on 27 reviews.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

critic Heather Phares regarded the record as "another fine example of how the band changes course on almost every album" and wrote: "they've been able to put different but cohesive spins on their sound so well, and for so long, is truly remarkable."

Track listing

# "Paradise Girls" — 3:35 # "Mirror Monster" — 2:39 # "Doom" — 3:20 # "Last Fad" — 3:03 # "Tiny Bubbles" — 3:28 # "Exit Only" — 2:45 # "Big House Waltz" — 3:27 # "God 2" — 1:43 # "Black Pitch" — 3:24 # "Oh Bummer" — 4:25

Personnel

;Deerhoof * Satomi Matsuzaki * John Dieterich * Ed Rodriguez * Greg Saunier ;Technical personnel * Nick Sylvester – production

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Isla Bonita (album), La 2014 albums Deerhoof albums Polyvinyl Record Co. albums