A fondness for both new wave sounds and Latin crooners shines on Wait. Think. Fast.’s most recent album, Vuelve al Mar, a seven-song collection released on forward-thinking digital label Origami.
Bilingual singer Santillan’s imagery-laden lyrics weave first-person narrative and poetic verse about values, social justice, and hope, slipping between Spanish and English over romantic compositions that shimmer with distinction but do not shy away from robust builds and cinematic potency.
Vuelve Al Mar picks up where 2006’s self-released, self-titled EP left off. Recorded by Earlimart frontman Aaron Espinoza at The Ship in Eagle Rock, the album was co-produced by Beighley and Santillan. NPR’s Tamara Vallejos describes song “Clear Our Name” as “haunting, tightly crafted, with thoughtful lyrics.” “‘Cien Fuegos’ was written as the theme to an imaginary movie,” Beighley says, citing film soundtracks by directors Stanley Kubrick and Terrence Malick as his inspiration. “Cura,” on the other hand, comes from Santillan’s experience growing up on her mother’s beware-the-devil superstitions. In her traditional Argentinean family, whistling at night called the devil, or putting a roll of bread upside down on a table was equal to squashing the face of God. Meanwhile, “Surface Streets” charges forth on the heels of Polo Quintero’s guitar like modern day Blondie, and album closer “Signals” plays out as if Thom Yorke were an attractive Latina on piano and not a pasty Brit.
Press
The band spins a glittering tempestuous type of pop, owing much to the glowing doom of post-punk, but constantly overriding any possibility of stale ennui with lusty detonations and bounding, unstoppable rhythms. - L.A. Record
Echo Park’s Wait.Think.Fast. play pretty, catchy pop tinged with a subtle, dark spirit. Frontwoman and piano driver Jacqueline Santillan meets the cheerful surrealism of the scene halfway, with an ’80s-tinged style that takes a decidedly romantic view of new wave. – Flavorpill
Wait Think Fast is one of the current standouts in a burgeoning scene of ethnically and musically diverse Los Angeles-based bands…”Clear Our Name” perfectly showcases all of Wait Think Fast’s strengths. Later, the group abandons its fuzzy guitars for the glittering beauty of “Cien Fuegos.” Its swaying, dreamlike melody will lull any listener, whether they understand Spanish or not. Like the rest of Vuelve al Mar, the emotive nature of “Cien Fuegos” easily transcends any language barrier. – NPR
This intoxicating bit of shimmering shadow-pop (reminds me of the ethereal, folky work of the Golden Palominos in the ’90s) serves its metaphysical themes well. Argentinean-born singer-keyboardist Jacqueline Santillan narrates plaintively as holy water turns black, frogs come out at midnight, souls return to the sea and bad luck stalks he who makes bad decisions. And that’s just in one song. – buzzbands.la
In its thirty minutes the record swirls from the lean sinew of chiming postpunk (“Clear Our Name”) to ambient trickles of silvery, synthy beauty (“Cien Fuegos”), with each track in between bearing the band’s uniquely noirish stamp of gently apocalyptic (figure that one out) beauty. – Web In Front
…a female fronted Echo and The Bunnymen and The Smiths with an ethnic twist. Santillan’s vocals hover like clouds above the firmly rooted post punk influenced guitars. – Amateur Chemist
