What's new from Dolly Parton, Stromae, Los Planetas and other albums

the brain and the heart

By Fernando Navarro

"There's a brain under this hair and a heart under these boobs."

It's one of the most memorable lines from Dolly Parton, one of the biggest voices in

since she broke out in the '70s as a young singer who was much more than a pretty face.

At 76 years old, the phrase is still valid: Parton is a brain and a heart working at full speed and in perfect harmony.

She proves it again on her new studio album,

which is added to a discography that is already close to fifty references.

The

industry has always needed radiant blondes to dress up in their traditional ball gowns to sell songs about broken hearts.

Parton, made with that mold, was loaded with all the topics and established herself as one of her great composers.

From day one she stepped out of the mainstream and got together with Porter Wagoner, one of Nashville's great songwriters, with whom she released a series of albums of her songs that refreshed the genre's repetitive landscape.

She got rid, with her sweet fierceness, of her stylistic ties and knew how to build her own discourse, of feminine vindication and cocky air, in albums as forceful as

,

and

.

Since then, after ups and downs between the eighties and the new century, he has done nothing but promote his own brand.

She owns the rights to all of her songs, has written essays, memoirs, and self-help books, produces television shows, and created brands for food, technology, and even a theme park called Dollywood.

Although, beyond her public figure, she is in the musical dimension for which it is convenient to vindicate her.

After several Christmas, children's and soundtrack albums released in the last five years,

is a new reason to value this remarkable composer.

The album comes with a concept behind it: it tells a story inspired by an intrigue novel written by Parton with James Patterson, the best-selling author of crime stories, who stars in the story of an aspiring singer who is wanted and captured.

His escape is the engine of a country-style story that, on the record, works independently.

The escape invites you to travel through dusty roads, cornfields, streams and cabins off the maps.

At times, it's too rooted, with a whiff of Nashville commercials, never quite outdone in Parton's oeuvre.

There are very bombastic choruses and cloying strings, like in 'Secrets' or 'Love or Lust'.

But, in the end, the ensemble holds up with the balladistic thrill of deeper compositions, like the Appalachian flavor of "Blue Bonnet Breeze" and the gorgeous "Demons," sung alongside Ben Haggard, son of

Merle Haggard.

acceleration ,

like in 'Run' or 'Firecracker'.

With

Parton continues to work on her personal brand and revalidates that famous quote about what her hair hides, while waiting for the great twilight album that, without a doubt, she will end up signing one day.

Stromae contains multitudes

By Javier Losilla

“Singleness makes me suffer from loneliness, life as a couple makes me suffer from boredom”.

Stromae, alias of the Belgian musician Paul Van Haver, does not beat around the bush when it comes to narrating the daily ups and downs.

Direct in his writing and playful with his point of view —which changes depending on the character telling the story—, the Belgian singer talks about broken loves, disappointments, suicidal tendencies, labor exploitation, the rights of sex workers... Stromae is not the voice that cries in the desert, but the prodigious universal throat of the 21st century.

Now, nearly a decade after recording

that successful second album with which he gave several turns to the French song in 2013 (and which included songs as celebrated as 'Formidable', 'Papaoutai' or 'Ta fête'), returns with the album of all albums:

.

Assisted by his brother Luc Van Haver, the musician and producer Moon Ellis and the arranger Bruno Letort, Stromae offers a dozen songs with a solid bill and spectacular arrangements;

transversal construction compositions armed with multiple references.

The very large National Orchestra of Belgium, instruments such as the charango, the ney, the zurna, the harpsichord and the Chinese violin, a Bulgarian choir, electronics... Thus, in 'Invaincu', voices with an African atmosphere they mess with rap;

in 'Santé', the cumbia dances with a reggaeton with a changed rhythm, and everything seems to turn into a

from Cape Verde.

An Afropop choral atmosphere gives life to the solemn 'Solassitude';

a baroque beginning anticipates in 'Fils de joie' a Stromae transfigured into both a modern Brel and a sub-Saharan interpreter, and 'C'est que du bonheur' has a rush of Latin pulsation.

In 'Pas vraiment' oriental aromas appear, while 'Mon amour' smells of the French Caribbean.

Dylan played Walt Whitman with his song 'I Contain Multitudes'.

Stromae does not mention the author of

but it would well deserve to be linked, henceforth, to the most popular of his verses.

Destroyer, an expanded classic

By Xavi Sancho

In 2011, Canadian Dan Bejar turned his career around and abandoned

for sophisticated '80s pop, infusing it with intelligence, the ability to draw curves and a voice that ranges from pre-Lexatin nervousness to fake calm after eating.

A handful of albums later, in which he has been coloring the landscape that he outlined with

Labyrinthitis

arrives

.

It would be daring to say that it is better than that classic, but it can be said that it completes that universe and is about to expand it.

Songs like 'June' or 'Tintoretto It's for You' are barbaric in which New Order or The Cure find themselves.

As it should be, here the slow songs are happy and the dance songs are depressing to the point of breaking your soul and hips.

Johnny Marr, evolution with sense

By Beatriz G. Aranda

One strategy to listen to news is to go to the songs with the most listeners on

platforms .

In the case of the new Johnny Marr, a double album with 16 songs, the three winners would be 'Spirit Power and Soul', 'Receiver' and 'Tenement Time'.

The first plays it safe: a euphoric, Mancunian theme reminiscent of New Order.

On 'Receiver' we hear an atypical vocal range embedded in a catchy melody;

and the third, perhaps the best on the album, reflects how he has developed a deep vocabulary of

helped by an expansive and powerful sound.

Marr is not looking for caricatures of himself, but rather a meaningful evolution.

“Forever, forever is mine”, he sings, clearly aspiring to eternity.

The Planets, from the local to the global

By Carlos Marcos

Ten albums by Los Planetas already, and none that is less than notable.

A sensational trajectory that continues.

is divided into two parts.

The first,

dedicated to their land, Granada.

It opens with his longest song, 'El manantial', 12 minutes and 23 seconds, based on a poem by Lorca.

A twilight theme that you don't want to end.

They cover Carlos Cano ('La morralla') and the Granada-born

Khaled in one of the songs of the year, 'Se wants to come'.

In the second part,

They analyze the political and social pandemic situation with a less common pop-rock in recent years.

They beat everyone who occupies an easy chair.

And they stay comfortable.

Between experiment and classicism, they have a fantastic job left.

Other…

Brad Mehldau, excessive and personal

By Yahweh M. de la Cavada

The new album by the prodigious pianist Brad Mehldau shares some musicians, sounds and religious themes with his

(2019), as ambitious as it is erratic.

On this occasion, the spirit of paying homage to the progressive rock bands that marked him in his adolescence helps to balance the repertoire: surely the versions of Rush, Gentle Giant or Periphery are the best compositions on the album.

Mehldau's electric jazz is becoming more and more polished and here it reaches round, even brilliant moments.

But it's still hard for the pianist to know when to stop, and the excess (of length, of ideas, of compositional ambition...) once again weighs down another of his albums.

Her triumph of him?

That everything in it, the good, the inspired and the pretentious, sounds personal.

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