Full disclosure: I had no idea who Javier Blake was when I first saw this video. But I thought, for a second, maybe he’s the Mexican version of James Blake, because, you know, that’s how names work. James Blake, he is not.
“Cuenta hasta diez” is a collaboration between Blake (who fronts División Minúscula) and Natalia Lafourcade, appearing on the soundtrack for Manolo Caro’s film, No sé si cortarme las venas o dejármelas largas.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen a music video that interlaces arbitrary scenes from the movie it’s promoting. In “Cuenta hasta diez,” we see people hugging, fighting (both with words AND food), laughing in bed, eating suggestively, and just living, man. What is this movie? I get no sense whatsoever from this video because, since the dawn of time, the music-video-as-trailer model has never worked (save for, of course, Coolio and Dangerous Minds).
The track is as radio friendly as it gets, with Blake taking the lead as Lafourcade softly supports him. Blake’s voice lacks enough specificity to make this song any kind of interesting. The pairing works better when they harmonize together as opposed to intermittently. This four-minute-and-change clip isn’t the easiest to stomach, but Lafourcade die-hards would probably stomach worse fates in her name.
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