Dua Lipa or heartbreak
By Xavi Sancho
Dua Lipa
‘Radical Optimism’
Warner
It seems that this new album by Dua Lipa is not convincing the public and tiktokers. This would not be news at any other time in the long history of pop, but today it is inevitable to ponder it. It is not for nothing that we are at the zenith of the era of poptimismconcept has led us to greet any product with overflowing effusiveness. mainstream for the sake of both warding off the arrival of radiant times that make us want to loot Shein’s website and punishing any kind of hint of intellectuality applied to pop music. Well, not all. We live in a strange moment in which it is permissible to refer to obscure post-Marxist essayists when analyzing an album by, say, Olivia Rodrigo, but it is a cardinal sin to associate her with any past punk pop group that did not sell a couple of million records. In this climate, it was clear that if there was a star that needed to be expelled from paradise, it had to be Dua Lipa. He was having too much fun.
The truth is that it would have been fantastic for the resistance forces if this Radical Optimism it was a hit. But is not the case. Something that is extremely frustrating if we take into account the quality of the first three singles released by the British woman of Kosovar Albanian origin. ‘Houdini’, with the help of Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, was a sort of update of the more clubbing Blondie. The next one, ‘Training Season’, a melodic riot that even had plenty of memorable passages. ‘Illusion,’ the third, was a bit more pedestrian and predictable, but contained production details that were reminiscent of Robyn, and that’s always nice and nice. The disappointment comes when, upon listening to the eight remaining songs, there is little left to put in your mouth. Perhaps the powerful chorus of ‘Falling Forever’ or that half-tempo almost Natalie Imbruglia that is ‘These Walls’, perhaps the only passage in the album in which the influence britpop that Dua Lipa announced before the album’s release is revealed. The rest is a compendium of bad musical decisions and embarrassing lyrics. There is a Balearic vibe, there are traces of the less interesting Moloko, Spanish guitars of chill out in a luxury hotel and a lot of poorly digested Abba. Abba is like fabada: if you are going to eat it, you must be prepared for what comes next.
So, if the disk is weak, where is the problem in not liking it in X? Basically, a large part of the analysis is driven by the idea that Dua Lipa, unlike other divas of the moment, has not been able to create an attractive personality. We were done. Apparently, she had two options: either tell us about her life as Taylor Swift and create engagement or give us a great sociocultural concept like Beyoncé and make us think very strongly from a pedantic first-year speech. So, there was a time when the public and the media stopped punishing artists for making bad albums and started slamming them for being (or having) bad publicists. We only hope that Dua Lipa’s next album is better than this one, but, above all, that it never occurs to her to tell us her life or deliver an album that could be published by Deusto. We want you to continue getting drunk in the morning with Seth Meyers and spending your life on vacation. The songs will return. And, if not, we always have Instagram. As Johan Cruyff said: “Dua Lipa, go out and enjoy.”
Mr. Chinarro, the troubles of the middle-aged man
By Carlos Marcos
Mr. Chinarro
Quicklime
Eclipse Melodies
After 20 albums, we should be used to Mr. Chinarro’s taciturn voice. Well, he is not the most gifted vocalist in pop-rock, but he is our Mr. Chinarro, the one who analyzes with certainty the troubles of the middle-aged man from a sly and pessimistic point of view. We forgive him even that “he who hits on deaf ears, who turns gold into lead or shaves his scrotum” that fits into the first song on the album, ‘Exvoto’, a rhyme that not even Robe Iniesta would dare to use. Antonio Luque is this old fifty-year-old guy who, in one of his moves, comes across a photo from his school days and writes a song (‘Comunión’) fantasizing about what must have happened to the rest of those who appear in the picture. image. In ‘Flipper’, with a border rhythm, Luque recalls the vocal and emotional parsimony of Luis Eduardo Aute, a mirror that is not crazy for the Sevillian. In ‘Captain Haya’ he tells the story of an aviator from the national side. He speaks in the first person: “The dead are the ugly ones.” A lesson from the side of history that must be remembered and repudiated. It is a musically varied album, with the incorporation of winds that give some compositions a hesitant air. funky and others an elegant cocktail pop. ‘V for Victoria’, with some very Berlanguian guitar games, you can even dance to.
Relationship disappointments are present, because Luque should know that, at his age, one is no longer ready to fall in love. As we fall again and again, the Sevillian at least takes advantage of the trance with lyrics that also exude a lot of humor. And 13 songs and 45 minutes have already passed, perfectly used. Few musicians are as personal as Mr. Chinarro in Spanish pop, a guy so anachronistic that we must take care of him.
Justice, a low-risk speech
By Beatriz G. Aranda
justice
Hyperdrama
Because / Music As Usual
With the french house relocated to Ibiza and summer festivals, but not always beyond (just look at Dimitri from Paris or The Blaze tours), the return of Justice after seven years of absence feels like news that will shock an audience of a certain age and fans of the genre. Contemporary electronic music today responds to these uncertain times with more urgent and raw sounds. In any case, in Hyperdrama there are elegant passages to dance and, as they say, groove ample. Also a successful encounter with Tame Impala. It fails only by not offering a less polished and more risky speech, of which they are perfectly capable, as demonstrated in ‘Incognito’ and the noisy ‘Generator’, closer to techno, the best cuts from the French duo’s fourth album.
Iron & Wine, a sweet sinking
By Laura Fernandez
Iron & Wine
Light Verse
Sub Pop / Popstock!
Sam Beam’s work, that folk pop, that alt country deeply melancholic, extremely beautiful, delicately rough and sad, with a sadness capable of accompanying so much – or what are all those shots unplugged that gathers in its Archive Series but friends?—like becoming digressive and playful, seems like one on her seventh studio album. One in which everything fits – there is sinking, but it is a sweet sinking, for example, in ‘Taken By Surprise’; and calm, a happy calm in ‘Sweet Talk’—. One in which its drama, radiant as ever, and that lightness present from the title itself are perfectly combined. If it’s not her best album, it’s close to being it, and not just because of that duet with Fiona Apple (‘All In Good Time’), so redeeming and so from another planet, but certainly a friend.
Alcalá Norte, enjoy success
By Iñigo López Palacios
Alcala North
Alcala North
Balaunka
Here is proof that to stand out you don’t need to invent anything, it’s enough to have personality. Someone said about Alcalá Norte that they were between The Cure and Burning and I surrender to such an ingenious and tight definition, because the sound of this sextet from Madrid is reminiscent of many things, but with so much character that the references end up not mattering. That is why the simplest thing is to shelter them under the generous umbrella of postpunk, a label that in Spain gives shelter to all those guitar bands that do not fall within the impersonal and hegemonic pop-rock. To summarize, of the 11 songs on their debut, 10 are great and the other is a hit incontestable, ‘The Canyon Life’. Now we just have to let them enjoy the success and give them time to see how far they can go. Luck.
The Search, a brilliant and impeccable return
By Javier Losilla
The search
Light, sand and tears
Espora Records
Twenty years after their recording retirement, the Mallorcan group La Search, led by Xisco Albéniz, returns with a poetically impeccable and musically brilliant album. Beautiful and liminal, Light, sand and tears It is the soundtrack of an emotional journey that appeals to the awakening of the senses. Echoes of real and imaginary folklore pass through some songs (‘Toda mi alma’, recovered from Wheel of fortune) Built with the stuff dreams are made of. At the end of the eighties, when the group debuted, the releases of Tindersticks and Calexico were still years away, groups that La Search was ahead of in the creation of a rock with unique DNA. Five albums, released between 1988 and 2004, gave a good account of the greatness of an unparalleled combo.
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