Canadian pop and jazz sensation Alejandra Ribera released her debut Navigator\/Navigateher<\/i> in 2009, then spent five years gearing up for her sophomore album. Why five years? Well, the multi-linguist took some time to recuperate from touring, then spent an entire year making the album, then an additional year fine-tuning it. The result is a very layered disc sung in three different languages (English, French, and Spanish) that expand on her roots into a worldly scope that transcends all cultural preconceptions of what pop music should sound like.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The album opens with the self-titled track \u201cLa Boca,\u201d where soulful piano leads and singing in English quickly moves into Spanish. Following this is the bagpipe heavy \u201cGoodnight Persephone,\u201d which finds Ribera’s unique voice steering us through a twinkling, soothing pop rock gem. \u201cNo Me Sigas\u201d shows a drastic shift into muffled singing over quirky Latin percussion, which illustrates how playful Ribera can get, and \u201cBad Again\u201d complements that playfulness but in a more sultry, sexy fashion.<\/p>\n
If Ribera is ever to see any commercial success, it’s likely to be because of the first single \u201cI Want.\u201d It is an instantly memorable and emotional tune where calm acoustic strumming meets her impressive vocal range; it’s hard not to envision a younger Natalie Merchant when hearing it. It’s easily the best song here, but not far behind it is the slow-burning, haunting feel of \u201cSt. Augustine\u201d or the moving English\/French duet with Arther H, \u201cUn Cygne La Nuit.\u201d<\/p>\n
I can’t help but mention The Proclaimers cover Ribera has so fabulously reinterpreted. Though we’ve all heard \u201c500 Miles\u201d redone, usually in the same tempo and note for note, here it moves at a crawling pace with slide guitar, putting a rustic spin on a classic anthem.<\/p>\n
Ribera reportedly waited three years for producer Jean Massicotte to become available for this, another reason for the hiatus between albums, but it seems her decision was worth the wait. This is a superbly produced album that should restore anyone’s wavering feelings about pop music today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":32158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9513],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-43909","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-alejandra-ribera","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43909"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}