El putón del barrio

El Cuarteto de Nos always had that cheeky way of telling stories without filters, but in El putón del barrio things get even more direct: it's as if the entire neighborhood had gathered to drink mate with the microphone. The song didn't beat around the bush from the first chord, and that's exactly what makes it sound different from everything the band had been doing up to that point. The track doesn't stay on the surface; it uses dark humor and irony to address something that was still taboo in local music in the '90s, doing so with a boldness that doesn't ask for permission. The original 1994 version already had that catchy hook, but when they re-recorded it in 2004 for the self-titled album, they gave it a rockier twist, as if they'd slapped a distortion patch over the electronic elements that wrapped it at first.The album Otra Navidad en las trincheras, where the song was born, was released in 1994 under the Ayuí / Tacuabé label and became a turning point for the band.

It wasn't just another album: that's when El Cuarteto de Nos stopped being the group experimenting with styles to find their own voice. The record blended alternative rock with pop, but with a more polished production than their previous works, giving the band a more mature air without losing that irreverent essence. The song, clocking in at three minutes and forty-three seconds, didn't go unnoticed: it slipped into the Uruguayan scene like a social commentary disguised as a danceable rhythm, something that wasn't common in local rock at the time.