ALBUM REVIEW: Chuck Prophet Pairs With ¿Qiensave? For Danceable, Delightful ‘Wake the Dead’

EDITOR’S NOTE: Chuck Prophet and ¿Qiensave?’s Wake the Dead came out Oct. 25 on Yep Roc Records. We’re reviewing it now as part of a year-end round up of some of the best albums we missed along the way this year. 

Sidelined from touring and most everything else after a 2022 cancer diagnosis and then treatment, San Francisco singer-songwriter Chuck Prophet had a lot of time to listen. Really listen.

In interviews, Prophet has credited listening deeply to music with helping him through such a scary time, and the music that resonated most strongly was cumbia, a Latin dance genre with a long history of absorbing sounds as it spread. Prophet became not just a fan but an acolyte of the music, studying its history, hunting down recordings, and talking it up with friends. When he was back on his feet, he started jamming with cumbia brother group and fellow Californians ¿Qiensave?. Their informal collaboration coalesced into joint live performances and finally an album, Wake the Dead, a delightful pairing of Prophet’s laconic, lyrically rich style and a rhythmic blast of energy from ¿Qiensave?.

The album dances to life immediately with the title track, an irresistibly funky groove driven by drums, accordion, and organ that perfectly complements Prophet’s laidback vocals. “Gonna wake the dead, get them on their feet,” the song promises, and it’s hard to imagine a listener who won’t find themselves right there with them.

As lively as the sounds of cumbia are, it’s a genre that can convey darkness just as well as light. “First Comes the Thunder” moves steadily, inexorably along, a perfect pace for a song that charts how a relationship, once cracked, tends to crumble until there’s nothing left of it. “Sally Was a Cop,” an album standout co-written with Alejandro Escovedo (who first included it on his 2012 Big Station album), gives a harrowing view of cartel violence in Mexico:

Shot in the face in the ditches of Tecate

35 bodies lying in the highway

Children forced to dig the graves of their fathers

Sally was a cop, now she’s a soldier

Prophet’s voice takes on an anguished edge on those lyrics, toward the end of the song, before giving over to a wail of guitars and a fierce pounding of drums — then it all resolves back to the groove. Just another day in a hellish landscape.

Speaking of which, there’s even a song here for Elon — Musk, we can presume. “In the Shadows (for Elon)” finds a man all alone in a mansion:

Now everybody’s gonna have to pay

When he rides his rocket ship away

You’ll find me in the shadows

In the shadows I’ll be found

Amid all the danceable beats on Wake the Dead, a few slower songs offer a chance to catch a breath, including the lovely “Red Sky Night,” co-written with Kim Richey and Aaron Lee Tasjan. These aren’t the album’s strongest moments, save for one: The album ends with “It’s a Good Day to Be Alive,” a sweet song made all the more poignant now that Prophet has emerged on the other side of his stage-four lymphoma battle. “It’s a good day to walk on water,” he sings, “Good day to swallow your pride / Good day to call your mother / It’s a good day to be alive.”

Wake the Dead indeed is a celebration of being alive to witness the world, even the uglier parts of it. It’s a reminder, too, of what a gift it is for all of us to be alive at the same time as Chuck Prophet.