The pandemic complicated the deployment on the stages of ‘Vertigo’ (2020), and it has not taken long Pablo Alboran in lighting a relay. album that hints a crossroads: attention to electronic latinities and duet parade, as the times suggest in the commercial arena, and signs of the singer-songwriter sense of alwaysentangled in his swirling stanzas in which, as in ‘Castles of Sand’, he wonders “what will others know about the pain you feel& rdquor;.
Alboran continues just as intense and not very concise in his verses, inviting the listener to interpret them as he pleases, which does not always convince his followers. Compositions about the desire to start over, break the rules or sing to love “as many times as necessary”, wrapped in music, yes, more accurate and restless. From the title of the album, he demands that we stop spending our lives looking for the four-leaf clover and comes to the conclusion that this clover is in ourselves. A poetic message, or marketing slogan, behind which rests the most varied songbook in its historya repertoire that slips a ‘but’: almost half of the album, six of the eleven songs, have been published as ‘singles’ over the last year or so.
mariachi touch
Among this well-known material, we must talk about the contrast between the sharp pop with electronic equipment and soft tropical cadence of ‘Carretera y manta’ and the enchanted trova of ‘Soy capable’, as well as the sharp touch of mariachi of ‘Viaje a ningún lado’ (date with the Mexican carin leon) and the slender pop that closes the album, ‘Llueve sobre mojado’ (in the company of Aitana and Alvaro de Luna). And another duet with miga, ‘Ave de paso’, shared with Ana Mena. Themes that were ‘singles’ with a life of their own and that now, brought together on the album, do not pose contradictions, but rather confirm the broad vision that govern its author.
Also among the unpublished pieces there is variety. It rises among them all ‘To flap the wings’, with evolved reflections of the Alborán that he fell in love with more than a decade ago, showing off his voice (with very faint melismas) and his Spanish guitar, and which slides a somewhat more explicit text than usual: “I don’t pretend to like everyone / I prefer the details of the imperfection & rdquor ;. The six strings wrap him up again in a beautiful rumba, ‘El traje’, while ‘Voraces’, with its atmosphere of digital helplessness, seems to move in that “no place& rdquor; (neither balladeer, nor Latin, nor exactly pop) that he told us about in this newspaper a while ago.
After all, Alborán has always been a bit there: a troubadour friend of fado and the ‘chanson’, and provider of pop numbers for the Top 10, brilliant melodist seduced by flamenco and tropical wiggles. It is on a site specifically created by him, as befits artists with the ability to transcend. Jordi Bianciotto
Other albums of the week
After the (low) fog of ‘Witchcraft’ (2019), Ana Fernandez-Villaverde enhances colors and rhythms, combining classic romance and synth-pop sympathy with a striking repertoire of latin patterns: bachata with brass, foul-mouthed rumba, echoes of bolero. It preserves its extreme sensitivity and moving power, but be warned more self-confidence: “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger, cooler, colder, meaner, crazier and more beautiful”, she warns in the defiant ballad ‘As if nothing’. J.B.
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