Son (CD)
Argentinean singer Molina was introduced to the American public with the release of her second album, Segundo. A mixture of acoustic guitars, traditional percussion touches, electronic textures, and her disarming vocals make it one of the most evocative and original albums in recent memory. NPR's "All Things Considered" praised her, as did Entertainment Weekly when it named Segundo "Best World Music Album of 2003". "Sounds like Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier covering Nick Drake, whispering luminous folk tunes amid electronic thickets while acoustic guitars and pianos flicker like votive candles" - Entertainment Weekly. 2004's follow-up, Tres Cosas was equally revered, as Jon Pareles of the NY Times named it a top ten record of the year, and it won even more fans as diverse as Savath & Savalas, David Byrne, Belle And Sebastian, and Sam Prekop. This is her first new material in over two years and is the first of her albums to be released simultaneously around the world, which should heighten the album's impact.
| Tracklisting | |
| Disk | 1 | |
| 1 | Rainbows in the Dark |
| 2 | Urgency |
| 3 | Bad Education |
| 4 | Lost Girls |
| 5 | Love Song |
| 6 | Sing Songs Along |
| 7 | Black and Blue |
| 8 | Brave Day |
| 9 | The Freest Man |
| 10 | Coughing Colors |
| BRock Thiessen
- Vancouver, , Canada |
| Argentina's princess of electro-acoustics, Juana Molina, has again ventured forth to give us Son, the follow-up to 2004's critically acclaimed album, Tres Cosas. With album number four, Molina has decided to let the strength of her vocal-stylings be the main driving force and in turn has kept the instrumentation and beats very minimal. Unfortunately, this approach is met by varying degrees of success.
Much like its predecessors, Son still offers a blend of laid-back folk guitars, loops, and off-kilter electronics as a backdrop for Molina's delicate songs. Her instrumentation gives a good deal of warmth and texture to her relatively stripped-down compositions, but it feels as if there is not enough of it. On the other hand, the soft warbles and squelches of analog electronics are a total plus, like on ''Rio Seco'' and ''Yo No.'' Actually, this synth sound seems to draw strongly from Nuno Canavarro's brilliant 1988 album, Plux Quba, which is always a good thing.
Where this album really doesn't fair so well is when Molina attempts to layer percussive vocal tracks in the absence of few real beats, much like in the way Bjork did on her last effort. But unlike Bjork, Molina's vocal experiments can be a bit painful on the ears and come out a bit too scat-like for comfort. The somewhat jarring vocal-manipulation on ''Un Beso Llega'' is a prime example of this. What works best is when Molina keeps the vocals simple and sways away from all the fancy effects, which often takes away from these songs. In the end, this whole affair is a bit of a mixed bag with a few good nuggets here and there but ultimately a bit of a let-down.
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