Street Signs
Ozomatli
2004
Album Summary
Street Signs is an album by Latin funk rock band Ozomatli, released in 2004 by Real World Records and Concord Records. Street Signs was included in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.This album won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album at the Latin Grammy Awards of 2005. The song "Saturday Night" was featured in the video games Madden NFL 2005, MX vs. ATV Unleashed, and Sleeping Dogs, in the soundtrack to the film Turbo, and the trailer for the 2010 comedy film Hot Tub Time Machine.
WikipediaEvery song in "Street Signs", Ozomatli's third album, is a blast of latin rock, funk and hip hop in your face. An ensamble of great musicians with a great variety of references coming together to create a nuanced and cohesive record that talks about workers rights and imigration in a very interesting way, that keeps you hooked from start to finish. "Believe" and "Santiago" are beautiful songs.
Loved the album, first song was a banger and the other ones were quite catchy. Didn't expect to have so much fun listening to a Latin Funk Album
Never heard of this band until now. Not sure why they are not huge radio mega stars. My theory on the fly is the hype machine doesn't know how to market this kind of music unless there is an individual (ie. Bruno Mars) to focus on. Their sound is varied with all kinds of different touchstones; funk, latin pop, rock, alternative maybe even, rap, hip hop and jazz . Everything is performed with a verve and energy that is absolutely infectious. This is not typically my genre but this album will remain on my playlist. Favorite song; Love and Hope. 4 🌟
7/10 i liked the concept of fusing so many genres. However, it felt a bit shallow overall , like they settled for having unique beats and left it at that.
Another album not in my copy of the book. There's an awful lot of divergence between different versions and (as I've noted before) a lot of more contemporary releases added and then quickly removed. It's almost like the people who curate this don't know how to evaluate modern music for its lasting impact. Anyway, I had never listened to Ozomatli before, but I knew of them as Cut Chemist's other group. In addition to Cut Chemist, Chali 2na has also collaborated with them, further cementing their connection to Jurassic 5. Ozomatli also share some of Jurassic 5's issues - namely, their lack of depth. They're fine, there's nothing wrong with them, but like a meal lacking much caloric content, you're going to be hungry again in an hour. There's a wiffliness to them, a lack of edge, a lack of bite. It's frustratingly clean and safe and, well, kind of boring. It shouldn't be. It's blending elements of a lot of genres, but it never feels like more than the sum of its parts. Why? How can you combine disparate elements and sound somehow formulaic? Better than Oasis though.
An interesting blend of genres and influences that doesn't quite stick the landing - some tracks swirl with the perfect mix of Eastern/Latin/Hip-Hop rhythms, but others bite off more than they can chew and fall into a repetitive (and boring) holding pattern.
hmm, I really thought I was going to enjoy this album. I feel like maybe there was a time when I listened to Ozomatli and liked them. This just feels like a mashup of the least interesting latin music and hip hop. It's upbeat and poppy and boring
2.8 - A bland fusion of Latin rock and hip hop that you’d head at a free summer concert in some medium-sized city.
A waste of time and space. Clear Latin music influences without doing anything interesting or worthwhile with it. Lyrics are corny and lack any sort of worthwhile message. Every genre influence it brings in does nothing to meaningfully expand on the core ideas, leading to cheap attempts of hip-hop, funk, rock, turntablism, and so forth. This drags on for nearly an hour without improvement. Skip this one.
First time of listening and what a revelation! great Latin/Rock/Hip Hop throughout. Loved "Saturday Night" "Believe" "Love & Hope " and "Who Discovered America" loved the line "Dip, Dive, Socialise Get Ready for Saturday Night..." Good album well worth it place on this list, homage to Carlos of course!
Excellent album! Only 1 or 2 songs I didn't really care for, the rest were either fine but mostly excellent!
This album was a fantastic with themes that could have been written in 2022. Latin fusion sound is very underrated. Favorite track: Dejame En Paz
9/10. A great, unique sounding album. A couple songs got on my nerves, but in general this was great.
Yes please more hindi inspired music! ...correction, hindi music! Woo! How was I so wrong? Well reguardless of the origins, this rocks hard. So danceable, so aware, so activist, just wonderful!
A really interesting blend of cultures and sounds. Anthems for the regular people of LA County. Full of energy, Ozomatli definitely delivered here. Will have to check more of their catalogue out
Albums like this are the ones I look forward to the most on this list due to their sheer uniqueness. Latin rock is much more interesting than hearing another boring 70s-80s rock album. Fav: who founded America
The English lyrics leave a little something to be desired but this is great
A different vibe completely from what I listen to. Tons of fun and well worth a listen.
Remember when we forgot for awhile that other countries had instruments too? I'd listen to Chali 2na read the phonebook
Mitt nya favorit band. svänger! även om det är svårt att få tag på tyvärr. men så är livet. ques que se
Cool hip hop/funk/Latin fusion album. There's a lot of variation in the style of songs on this album which makes it fun to listen to
I don't care what genre, the world needs more socially conscious music that makes you want to dance as much as this does. I wouldn't normally gravitate to any of the genres explored on this album, and can't say I would go back to it, but glad I now know it exists.
That was a trip. And Jurassic 5 is a big part of it. Wow catchy and very unique. Whole lots of genre influence
This was something I'd never heard before, but it makes complete sense when you put it next to contemporaneous stuff like the Cat Empire or Manu Chao. Good fun.
Man, that was way more fun than expected. The musicianship is top-notch, the songwriting is lighthearted but still significant, and the recording quality is legit. I don't know, I really enjoyed it and added several tracks to my personal playlists.
A great album with amazing musicality and great musical diversity! Kept me invested the whole time. Best tracks: Believe, Who's to Blame, Saturday Night, Dejame En Paz, and Ya Viene El Sol
It's not all available on Spotify or Youtube it seems. What I did listen to I actually enjoyed a lot
Jammer dat zowel Spotify als Youtube niet het volledige album hebben. Ik vond dit gevarieerd en leuk. Niet alles overigens; soms vond ik het ook Enrique-Iglesias- en Songfestivalachtig. Over all toch enthousiast. Ik houd wel van groepen met veel muzikanten. Hier nog een leuk filmpje: https://youtu.be/jpAYZKX2Cz4
This was a hard one to rate because of how uptempo and over the place it was. I loved Santiago and America the best, but there were plenty of replay able songs. The combination of rap and Spanish pop(?) was a novel idea to me, and I can’t say that it disappointed.
This is what I love about this 1001 experience. I would never have discovered this without this group. I really enjoyed this. It moves right from the start. Loved the guitar in Santiago and the piano in Dona Isabella. This would be the perfect album to play in the background for a warm summer night party.
Really enjoyed that, felt like it spanned a few different genres nicely. Never heard of Ozomatli but in looking them up found out they are friends with Jack Johnson.
It has been really hard to listen to this album as it isn't anywhere online. I think I've managed to listen to most of the songs on YouTube, albeit some were live versions. But I certainly had an impression - wow this was so fun! I bet it would be so great to see live. Loads of energy, fun, big sounds - loved what I did hear!!
Amazing mix of influences and cultures. Never heard of this group before but I like what I find when I'm researching them a little bit. This vibe of taking you around the world by taking you around LA is really cool because of how international LA is. The biggest influence I hear coming through is the Latin one with Spanish lyrics and Latin beats. I love this mix of R&B Salsa Samba Jazz etc etc. It keeps me so interested throughout the album and makes me want to dance some salsa. Really great! Who Discovered America? Wow what a poem, amazing tune too.
This was one of the most unique albums we've heard so far. It featured a variety of sounds, genres, and languages yet nothing sounded out of place. Parts reminded me of the Roots, Santana, the Black Eyed Peas among others but the album still had a cohesive feel. I wish some of the melodies were stronger.
Not familiar with the band at all (although one of their songs from 2010 is in my itunes library -- probably from some compilation sampler I got). Have to say that I really liked the mix of funk, latin and rapping. Maybe they are more well known outside of the US, but they deserve some visibility here too.
Its a party album, no doubt. Lots of fun but Im not sure an album of this title even exists. Has it become lost to time?
I always know when the genre on Apple Music isn't in English, that I'm in for a treat. Indeed I was today with this fun and lively album. I appreciated the diversity between the tracks as well as the energy and creativity of each song. Very enjoyable!
I really enjoyed this - I was already a fan of Chali 2na of J5 but hearing him and others over this ace Latin music was really enjoyable, and the additional African and Middle Eastern influences made it really varied and interesting. Definitely one I'll revisit.
I liked this. Crazy eclectic sound - from Indian raga vibes to sounds approaching klezmer, and it's always a nice change to have socially and politically aware music that is largely positive and upbeat.
Started off like 70's funk, but it's a interesting mix of ragga, reggae, dub, latin, and ska. I liked it.
Great mix of world music sounds and grooves. A good choice of music to work or clean the house to.
Disc de barreja de sons del món amb hip hop, molt ben entramat i amb una execució molt pro. Recorda els primers anys de segle, la ressaca del 11S i la intencionalitat que hi havia aleshores d'agermanar pobles i cultures
The name of the band was familiar, but none of the tracks stood out as something I've heard before. It's hard to get me excited about hip-hop, but the variety of music genres was interesting and enjoyable. I liked the arabic influences in a couple of tracks, and even the ska-ish track "Déjame en Paz". "Ya Viene el Sol" was another favorite track. Overall the album was good, but there were some slow spots. This album has room to grow on me.
The tracks on this album are like a box of chocolates. I didn't like half of them.
Not on Spotify so a bit annoying to listen to so just clicked through the tracks quickly. Probably deserves another more thorough listen at some point.
Not on Spotify so listening cobbled together from youtube and live albums. The good tracks are really good, with predictably the bass and percussion the standout elements. I can leave the 90s/early 00s staple of 'oh third verse time for a rap' element.
First Listen. Interesting sound. Funk, jazz, Latin, rock, hip hop, world fusion all in one album. I mostly liked it. Standouts: Saturday Night 3/5
I liked the collision of styles. Unfortunately Spotify didn't. It would only play the opening track for me.
Could only listen to one song as that was all that was available on Spotify. But it wasn’t bad.
This was a good listen. "Who Discovered America" was a really good track. A little Latin, a little hip hop. Reminded me of Santana.
Yllätti positiivisesti kun rullasin youtubesta levyn läpi. Mukavat soundit ja vaikeasta päivästä huolimatta jäi hyvä fiilis.
Zomerse muziek, wel een oké album. echter moeilijk te vinden op streamingdiensten, dus heb niet alle nummers gehoord
Cool hybrid of latin rock type music and rap. I liked "Love And Hope", "(Who Discovered) America?", and "Saturday Night". Just didn't like them well enough to overcome some of the songs I really didn't like.
Only the first 2 songs were on Spotify AU, had to look the rest up on YouTube. Managed to find most of it but a few were live tracks and other people covering the songs etc. This.... was p cool. Albums like this are the reason I signed up for this project - trying to hear new things, not just 6000 Beatles albums that have already been played to death. But this was fresh, a real mix of styles done well. It had all the standard parts of a big funk band but with a bit more here and there - occasional rapping, flamenco, middle eastern sounding melodies, I heard a rock guitar solo at one point, etc. I really liked the funky and experimental stuff, not so much the rap. 3/5.
Some great stuff on here outside of what I normally listen to. Huge fan of "Believe."
A very eclectic mix of sounds ranging from Bollywood and Sitars that was mixed with rap and Salsa dancing. I think it would be worth a listen to as a full album as it's kinda fun but also a little strange. Not sure how I feel about it as a whole because of how disjointed it felt trying to find as many tracks as possible. Only 2 songs were on Spotify AU. Could not find "Te Estoy Buscando", "Doña Isabelle" and "Nadie Te Tira"; for "Santiago" only found a drum cover, not ideal but could get a feel for it. Best (from what I heard): Love and Hope Worst (from what I heard): Ya Viene El Sol
I'm kind of surprised this album came out as late as it did. It feels like some kind of Latino pop collaboration out of the 90s, with a hip hop twist. Understand me, that's not necessarily a bad thing. This album is really tight musically, with fun grooves. The songs have a great fusion of styles that feels very natural and not pasted together. Great surprise appearance from Eddie Palmieri is all the proof you need that these guys are the real deal. I'm also pleased to hear a little Spanish on 1001 Albums, which has been weirdly absent thus far. It's only the 2nd most spoken language in the world, guys. Enjoyed this quite a bit. Fave Songs: Nadie Te Tira, Te Estoy Buscando, Santiago, (Who Discovered) America?, Love & Hope
What a weirdly unique album. Genres and languages mixed that you don't often hear. However in the end, the big memorable thing about this album is the uniqueness, not the quality
Begins quite interesting with an interesting blend of genres and the latin roots, but as the album progresses turns into a more standard latin sound. Overall not bad, but doesn’t leave a lasting impression.
Curiosamente no estaba disponible en mi paÃs, asà que escuché otro de la misma banda.
The first album to defeat me in the sense that I was unable to find the complete album on any suitable service. Instead I listened to Ozomatli’s first album, which I owned, and selections from some other albums. I like Ozomatli. They mix some styles up together and whilst the whole thing isn’t going to tear up any trees, it’s perfectly decent well made music - Latin flair with hip hop beats. This hip hop head especially enjoys their collaborations with Chalib2na and De La Soul.