Sin Miedo might be the soundtrack of summer
When Kali Uchis tweeted her next project would be entirely in Spanish, she felt she had to apologise for ‘‘disappointing her Englishspeaking fans who do not wish to make the attempt to listen to music in languages they don’t understand’’. Any such fans are missing out on something great.
Her early releases were most often described as genre defying, meaning the American singer with Colombian roots likes to mix it up. By contrast, Sin
Miedo (Without Fear) is an homage to the many genres that influenced her childhood: Latin pop, boleros and perreo, to name a few.
Diversity pays dividends and this highly accomplished record flies by. She commands melody with free-spirited, free-wheeling fluidity, movingwith utter confidence earned from formative years fronting jazz bands.
Almost impossibly slow, the deeply sensual vaya con dios
( Go with God) oozes unfulfilled desire with stirring, cinematic strings. It gets pretty steamy. Not understanding Spanish might even prove beneficial during the call-and-response of te pongo mal, it may save you blushing.
If you like to judge people by the company they keep, Tyler The Creator, Gorillaz and Kaytranada are frequent Uchis collaborators. Grammynominated, the latter for best dance recording, she gushed with gratitude, while managing to humbly brag about writing the song in less than 30 minutes.
We get it, Ms Uchis, you are muy buena!
The War On Drugs’ live album is as good as you would expect from a band whose breadand-butter is building cathartic chords and repetitious riffs into hypnotic hymns of hope. A shoegazing slacker and understated auteur, Adam Granduciel discards melodies like he’s Bob Dylan, but mixes that nonchalance with aMark
Knopfler sense of showmanship.
You can tell the audience is present, but thankfully these recordings zero in on the tiny details that make this band so special. Bright guitars that ascend through atmospheric reverb, Granduciel’swispy voice whipping between beguiling guitar licks. Including songs from their great, 2014 Lost in a Dream album, Live Drugs captures the band at their indulgent best.
I’m not sure what has brought about the current trend of releasing albums in halves. I guess it’s an effort to get two bites at the promotional apple, but I think I’d rather just have the whole thing, thanks.
Either way, it’s always worth tuning into whatever Lontalius is making. Side One is the first part of Someone Will Be There For You, the rest of which arrives next year. His writing and arranging just keep getting better, which really is saying something.
His debut, I’ll Be 17, immortalised his teen years and now, in his self-discovering 20s, he’s far from home and searching for meaning. It’s beautiful to hear.
Fragile and vulnerable, his levels of self-awareness are matched by meticulous melodic instincts.
Truly one of our best young songsmiths, I can’t wait to hear the rest.