Mediocre () is the Grammy Award and Latin Grammy nominated debut album of Mexican singer and actress Ximena Sariñana, released in the United States on . Mediocre reached #10 on Billboard's Latin Pop Albums, and spawned the hit single "Vidas Paralelas" ("Parallel Lives"). The album gained additional attention when the iTunes Store featured Sariñana's song "Normal" as the canción de la semana — iTunes' free Latino song of the week — during the week of .

Mediocre garnered good reviews from many critics, receiving five stars from SoMinty, four stars from Time Out, and four stars from Rolling Stone magazine. Many critics praise Mediocre for being an eclectic album with a diverse style of songs featuring pop, rock, alternative, and nueva canción styles.

Theme

Sariñana clarified that her title choice, "Mediocre", means to denounce mediocrity and conformity. She explained in an interview, "This whole idea of the perfect woman of the ‘50s is what the title song is about... There was no possibility of being something different, and that, in turn, created a prototype of a woman who was mediocre."

The album artwork for Mediocre meant to emulate the theme of mediocrity. Sariñana elaborated, "The cover is a take on the idea that women in the ‘40s and ‘50s had to be ‘perfect.’ Perfect hair, perfect clothes, sitting quietly and making perfect meals and embroidering perfectly. And, ironically, they were all perfect in the same, uninteresting way so that ended up making them all mediocre. That was the idea." Sariñana stressed that she did not intend to produce mediocre content for the album: "It’s not to say that the material is mediocre, but rather that it’s a message of irony, and I think the public gets that, but there are some people out there who like to poke fun at the title."

Recording and production

Recording commenced in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on May 2007 and finished in August 2007. Various studio musicians were brought in for the recording of Mediocre. Bruno Bressa, the drummer of Volován, helped in the production process of the album, and also played the keyboard and tabla for its tracks. Argentine producer Tweety González and Uruguayan producer Juan Campodónico produced the album in 2008.

Musical style

Mediocre showcases rock, pop, and hip-hop influences. Jimmy Draper of Time Out New York describes the musical style as "full of buoyant, jazz-inflected pop with occasional electronic underpinnings and outbursts of rock". The album opens with "Mediocre", a heavily rock-influenced track, leading to the pop single "Vidas Paralelas". Sariñana relies heavily upon the piano in the pop track "Normal", which also features brass and vocal harmonies. "La Tina" displays a hip-hop influence through its use of electronic beats. "No Vuelvo Más" features Sariñana's use of additional vocal harmonies, as well as acoustic guitars. Ron Bronson of SoMinty points out that "Un Error" and "Sintiendo Rara" are slower songs reminiscent of Sariñana's interest in jazz.

Lissette Corsa of Orlando Weekly points out that Mediocre follows a unique contemporary jazz style. Corsa praises Mediocre, calling it a "deftly crafted alt-pop record", but notes that "it’s the electronic embellishments, dub effects and jazz trimmings—in the form of loose piano lines, subtle tempo changes and vocal improvisations—that make it unique." Corsa also praises Sariñana, whose "lyrics exhibit a remarkable depth for someone her age", saying Sariñana has "a keen understanding of composition and melodic structure".

Genres

Since Mediocre incorporates many different styles of music, the exact genre of the album is disputed. Allmusic classifies Mediocre as a pop/rock album with adult alternative pop/rock and adult contemporary stylings. However, the iTunes Store classifies Mediocre as an alternativo album to accentuate its Latin American style as well as its alternative style. SoMinty classifies Mediocre as an indie pop album, and Rhapsody categorizes Mediocre as nueva canción, or "new song".

Critical reception

Criticism of Mediocre has been mostly positive, and many critics highly acclaim the album. The Rolling Stone staff rated Mediocre four stars, and Rolling Stone's average viewer rating is four and a half stars. Mark Kemp, a music journalist from Rolling Stone, called Mediocre one of the strongest debuts from a female singer-songwriter since Norah Jones' Come Away With Me, exclaiming "There's sultry torch songs, folky ballads, smart rock — and not a bum track among them." Ron Bronson, a music journalist from the website SoMinty, awarded Mediocre five stars. He describes Sariñana's voice on Mediocre as being "something along the lines of Nellie McKay meets countryman Julieta Venegas meets Sia. original, in other words. Very original.... If you have any real desire to listen to music en español, you'll be hard pressed to find a better singer on the indie scene these days. Ximena has got chops, folks." Ernesto Sánchez of People en Español labeled Mediocre "one of the most promising Latin Music albums of ". Eric Danton of The Hartford Courant pointed out that "her prospects in the United States are less predictable thanks to a fragmented radio landscape and what for many English-speaking listeners is a language barrier."

Awards and nominations

Sariñana was nominated for two awards at the Latin Grammy Awards of 2008 for Mejor Nuevo Artista (Best New Artist) and Mejor Canción Alternativa (Best Alternative Song) for her single "Normal". Sariñana won an award at the MTV Latin America Awards 2008 for Artista Revelación (Discovery Artist).

On December 4, 2008 this album received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album.

Singles

"Vidas Paralelas" ("Parallel Lives"), the first single from Mediocre, was released on . The remix of "La Tina" ("The Bathtub") by Metronomy was released in 2008, and an was released on YouTube by Warner Music Mexico in . "Normal" was promoted on iTunes to the public in the United States in , when it became the iTunes Latino Free Single of the Week. Los 40 Principales has announced that a music video for the title song will be released in the near future.

Credits

The information below is provided by Allmusic, and the personnel are listed in alphabetical order. Clicking the arrows changes the sort order.

Chart performance

Album certifications

See also

*Music of Mexico

References

Artist/Band Information

Ximena Sariñana Rivera (born October 29, 1985) is a Grammy Award and Latin Grammy nominated Mexican singer-songwriter and actress. Sariñana's musical career was launched in 2008 with the release of her first studio album Mediocre, an adult contemporary pop-rock/vocal jazz album that has been critically acclaimed and nominated for various awards, including two nominations in the Latin Grammy Awards of 2008.

Childhood

Ximena Sariñana Rivera was born in Guadalajara, Mexico to producer/director Fernando Sariñana and screenwriter Carolina Rivera. She is niece of Mexican actress Angélica Rivera and producer José Alberto Castro, brother of Verónica Castro. When she was 2 years old, Sariñana attended an Ella Fitzgerald concert, claiming to be the beginning of her interest in music and one of her biggest influences. She soon started listening to other artists such as Paul Simon, Tracy Chapman and Carmina Burana. She would often be seen singing and dancing, dressed up in costumes. When Sariñana was 7 years old, her neighbor, Cecilia Toussaint suggested she should take singing lessons with her teacher Ricardo Sánchez, known for instructing Mexico's biggest talents. She also took up piano lessons with Hanna Cot. In 1994, Sariñana acted in Hasta morir (), which was produced by her father, Fernando Sariñana. Sariñana would later attend the Academia de Musica Fermatta.

Rise to stardom

She started acting in telenovelas at the age of 11 as the villain Mariela in Luz Clarita, starring Daniela Luján as the main character, Luz Clarita. The following year, Sariñana acted in the telenovela María Isabel as Rosa Isela, with Adela Noriega as the main character, María Isabel. Her final appearance on a telenovela was in 1998 on a telenovela entitled Gotita de amor () as Enriqueta. At seventeen, after earning a scholarship for the Five Week Program of the Berklee College of Music, she composed three songs for the soundtrack of the Mexican movie Amar te duele where she also played the part of Mariana. Other important movies in which she acted were as Ximena in the 2001 film El Segundo Aire (), Valetina in Niñas Mal (), all of which were directed by her father and written by her mother. She also appeared in a short film called De paso in 2005. In 2007, Ximena Sariñana acted in the movie Dos abrazos () directed by Enrique Begne. Dos abrazos won Sariñana an award for Best Female Actress at the 38th Diosas de Plata of Pecime awards. The latest movie in which she has acted is called Enemigos íntimos () and will be released on DVD in late 2008.

She went on to be part of the band Feliz No Cumpleaños (), a Mexican funk-jazz, pop-rock band she formed alongside old friends from the Academia de Musica Fermatta. She captivated the audience on television by performing "El Triste" (), originally performed by Mexican icon José José.

An article in in February 2009 featured Sariñana, and in March she was a feature vocalist with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Group on a tour of Europe. Sariñana expanded further into international stardom when she graced the cover of Venus Zine's Summer 2009 issue, transcending national boundaries to make her mark in American media.

Mediocre

Her first solo album Mediocre was released on February 12, 2008 by Warner Music Group. Ximena wrote most of the songs on the album and revealed in Venus Zine's Summer 2009 cover story that, “Learning the language of my nationality was something I really wanted to achieve... so I thought maybe if I did a Spanish album it would be a good challenge." Venus Zine Summer 2009 Issue On March 28, 2008, Mediocre was certified gold by AMPROFON for selling more than 50,000 copies. Sariñana would later receive further achievement when Mediocre reached platinum status for selling more than 80,000 copies.

The video for Vidas paralelas was shot in Iceland and directed by Pablo Dávila.

In late June, Metronomy stated that they were fascinated with Ximena's debut album Mediocre and the group produced a remix of La tina. Her music video for the second single, No Vuelvo Más, was premiered as an exclusive video on July 14, 2008 in MTV Mexico. She was later nominated for two Latin Grammy awards for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Song but lost to Kany García and Volver a Comenzar by Café Tacvba respectively.

Other works

In 2007, she contributed vocals for the song "Valenciana" in the album Extempore by the Ensenada-based nujazz band Kobol. In March 2009, Sariñana was featured as a vocalist alongside Omar Rodríguez-López with his solo group on their tour of Europe, which resulted in the live record Los Sueños de un Higado. She also provided vocals on Omar's solo albums Xenophanes, Solar Gambling, Ciencia de los Inútiles and Tychozorente.

Along with Jason Mraz, she has released a Spanish version of Mraz's song "Lucky". The video for the Spanish-version has both her and Mraz in it, it was released to MTV on 22 June 2009. As of November 2009, Ximena is currently in the studio working on her second album.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Guest appearances

* Extempore by Kobol (2007)

*Los Sueños de un Higado by Omar Rodríguez-López (2009)

* Xenophanes by Omar Rodríguez-López (2009)

* Solar Gambling by Omar Rodríguez-López (2009)

* Ciencia de los Inútiles by El Trío de Omar Rodríguez-López (2010)

* Tychozorente by Omar Rodríguez-López (2010)

* Cizaña de los Amores by Omar Rodríguez-López (2010)

* どういたしまして by Omar Rodríguez-López (2010)

Filmography

References