Soulful is a word that you might use to describe it, full of lush string arrangements and easily flowing vocals, including several guest appearances.
La Bala is Ana Tijoux’s second full length album. The title, which means ‘the bullet’ gives an indication as to the content. The Chilean MC delivers entirely in Spanish, my grasp of which is limited to what I picked up on surfing expeditions back in my younger days, but never the less, the intentions of the first few songs is clear beyond any doubt. Aggressive, jagged and born of universal human experience which all right thinking humans can sympathize with. I suppose being born in exile to parents escaping the regime of a notorious dictator gives one a certain outlook on life. But the thing is, after the first few tracks, which deal with civil unrest in Chile, student protests and violence on the streets, the majority of the album is very soft and laid back. Soulful is a word that you might use to describe it, full of lush string arrangements and easily flowing vocals, including several guest appearances.
Now, I am a bit of a sucker for listening to languages other then my own, I have driven my family to despair listening to Gaelic Welsh or Scottish radio stations with no hope of understanding it. I just love to hear how other people use languages, especially in a musical context. But, the point I’m getting to in this meandering way is this; having a command of the Spanish language is in no way a prerequisite for enjoying this album. The musical content is very strong, although I have to say I prefer the more spicily aggressive tracks, but also, Ana’s voice is gorgeous, and the way words patter out of her is just somehow very nice to listen to. Spanish seems to lend itself to rapping particularly well, as does French, both of which, incidentally are spoken by the multi-lingual Ana, though not on this album. Maybe it’s due to the inherent measures of those languages, which is pretty quick. Maybe it’s because—especially in Latin America—people have genuine hardship to deal with, which always makes for some meaningful outpourings. I’m sure that understanding the words adds a whole new level of meaning to the song—well obviously it does—but it also changes the way the songs are perceived, without that understanding one can appreciate the musical shapes and form of the songs abstracted from meaning, which is sometimes a very nice thing. I wonder what Rage Against The Machine would be like to listen to without understanding any English? I think we’d still get the gist.
This is a great album, full of charm, soul, anger and well, lots of other things. Regardless of your command of Spanish, this is good stuff.
La Bala is available on Nacional. Buy at Nacional, iTunes or Amazon.