Who said a lifetime of ‘indie’ wasn’t politicized? Listen and admire songs like “Fake freelancers”, “Audience decides” or “Sexo, mar y sol” (“It took my love years/best years”) “it took a multinational company” Sr. The growing corrosive power of Antonio Luque’s words on Chinarro’s new album ‘Reality show’. The fine catalog of pop songs that will be shown to the people of Barcelona at the Wolf Room this Friday.
The cover shows a panoramic view of Barcelona from a corner of Park Güell and warns that we are looking at an album with a distinctly Catalan ancestry. Luque renewed the band once again, now Dani Vega (Mishima guitarist), Miquel Sospedra (bass; Alizzz, Amaia, Mazoni) and Xavi Molero (drums with Zahara and Iván Ferreiro), A top group of “classy, very subtle and very elegant” features. He recorded the album at Molins de Rey and the cover is embellished with a photo of the now regular Barcelona native Blanca Viñas. And he composed most of the music at Cornellà, where he spent “nine years coming and going.”
a little humor
Prepared in Malaga, where he still lives, the texts take a skeptical view of the spectacle of life. Luque admits, with his usual scolding, that his reconciliation with reality has gotten worse over the years. “Everything has always seemed absurd to me and I try to deal with it with a little sense of humor without getting depressed. But the years go by and I’m already 52 years old and every day everything seems stupider to me. In the end, it turned out that I was the stupid one,” Sevillian says, breaking the stereotype that one has become more conservative over time. “In my case it’s the opposite. When I first voted at 22, I did it for the PP because I couldn’t stand the hypocrisy of Chaves to call you a socialist and live like a king”. And now? “I vote for the most violent people I can, or at least people with weird hair, to piss off tie-wearing hypocrites,” he says, adding an irritating note. “As I get older, I realize that There are things that can only be fixed with violence and I can read this far”.
At least one of the new songs, the accusatory ‘Coward’, says “there is love” but let’s not get hopeful. “Yes, love is a life urge but now I’m in a more cynical stage. Sometimes I see some light and that’s where the lyrics come from, but in reality the song goes against me”, she thinks. The authorship of the song and everyone on the album seems to have been attributed to the four members of the band as a sign of generosity. “Composition for me is the melody of voice and harmonies, but you can do a lot of different things with it, and that’s where musicians come in. Composers have a hard time giving authorship percentages, but that’s my habit.”
Far from Vallenato
With Vega, Sospedra, and Molero (and two other accomplices, chorus girl Georgina Wolkowicz and guitarist Josep Vilagut), Luque made a pop album with dynamic volume and catchy choruses, strong and subtle synthesizer tracks. That fictitious British pop that will turn 30 next fall from New Order to Echo & The Bunnymen should be placed at the height of a record catalog still well-entrenched around it. “My favorite music is whatever it is. I don’t like vallenato dance, it makes me feel nervous. After all, there is nothing different in music today. Rosalia, why did you put a motorcycle sound? This has been done before. And the ‘autotune’ Cher used already in the 90’s?
So pulling his own strings and taking care of the details, Luque continues to expand his songbook. “What else is wonderful in the world? Sex, music and all that. And cheese and ham. And watch the children grow up.” Chinarro, the father of “one of the 17 people” who love rap, states “but from ‘old school’, ’80s”, “to protect his dignity”. A singer who does not get tired and is already thinking about her next album. “Barn? Let’s get another one!”