El Presidente - El Presidente

El Presidente is an electronic glam band from Glasgow that’s being hailed as a Scottish Scissor Sisters, presumably by themselves. They’ve released three singles, one of which you might recognize from a Gap commercial or a Levi’s commercial or a Nokia commercial, I don’t remember which. Their press package claims they sound like Led Zeppelin and Parliament, though they actually have more in common with Twisted Sister and a 40 year-old Axl Rose. So, they aren’t actually aiming any higher than to be a guilty pleasure, and they’ve got the oozing synth lines and banal lyrics to qualify for one. But El Presidente, unlike The Scissor Sisters, doesn’t carry enough talent to justify their raunchy goofiness, and all the potential filthy fun is in fact grating and stupid. At first glance, the songs are mindlessly enjoyable, but each pleasurable hook eventually turns into unbearably sweet electronic garbage, or is marred by tacky mistakes. “Hanging Around” employs the musical equivalent of a black-faced minstrel performer to repeatedly sing/rap “baby it’s all gonna be alright/hangin’ around, hangin’ around.” “Rocket,” the song from the aforementioned jeans/cell phone commercial, features a particularly flamboyant chorus that begs to be sung by Dee Snider. “Keep on Walking” has a certain potential, but it’s destroyed by a tragically awful synth line in the chorus. “If You Say You Love Me” is the only song that breaks the mold, transcending the usual insipidity for an impeccable impression of Janet Jackson and Prince doing a duet to raise cancer awareness. I have no idea if this was a calculated decision or a beautiful mistake, but it is by far the best song on the album. Ultimately, every song on the album is produced to the very edge of its life, coating the entire record with a thin layer of grime that is making me feel nauseas. That’s where the similarities with The Scissor Sisters end, because while both bands are effectively dirty, El Presidente is processed and hollow rather than goofy and sexual. They're not kidding, there’s nothing funny on this record; it truly appears that they're trying to get by on their own sleazy talent. Unfortunately, the talent is nowhere to be found, and what El Presidente has put out is a processed, sickly stickiness that distracts from the few interesting moments they were able to come up with. [www.elpresidentemusic.com]