El Bien y Mal Nos Une is the thirty-second studio album by Omar Rodríguez-López as a solo artist, and his sixth release in the 12 album series initiated by Ipecac Recordings.
The album features several remixed (and partially re-recorded) versions of songs originally released in 2010 on Un Escorpión Perfumado under different titles: “Acuérdate” (previously “Que Dice Pessoa?”), “Amor Frío” (previously “Incesto O Pasión?”), “Humor Sufi” (previously “Estrangular el Extranjero”) and “Yo Soy la Destrucción”/”Planetas Sin Sol” (previously “Mensaje Imputente”/”El Diablo y la Tierra”).
Much more like an amalgamation of Omar’s Xenophanes and the recent Arañas en La Sombra, the glowing moments of this Spanish-language album come from those slightly catchier melodies…
…that have been infecting most of these solo releases. The chorus of the opening track, “Violencia Cotidiana,” breaks off a bit from the song’s more experimental nature. The opening of “Un Acto de fe” opens with what sounds like a newborn sex robot grunting over an a-cut section from the score of Real Genius, if it were produced in China. “El Bien y mal Nos Une,” ends up being a collection of catchy choruses wrapped up in funky synths and your not-so-standard sampler sounds.