By José Gandue @spinning zone
Who Alejandro Meola?
Let's start from the beginning: He was born in Miami, grew up in Buenos Aires, where, in 2010, he released his first album called Saints of Buenos Aires, and in 2013 he released his second album, 25.102.Rayos!!!, TO A few months after making that publication, he settled in New York, where, as his biographical information indicates, he initially played covers of Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Smokey Robinson, Nat King Cole, Sam Cooke, the Temptations, and The Meters in various East Village cafes. He then recorded the singles in English. Black Feathered Angels y Please. In 2015, in a completely self-managed manner, releases his EP First Impressions, This garnered him the attention of specialized media outlets in North America, Europe, and Japan. Three years later, He turns to lo-fi sound aesthetics to record a new album, Blue Whale, armed, as he himself explains, «"with a rudimentary collection of microphones, software, speakers, MIDI drums, a guitar, and a poster of John Lennon clinging to the wall.". One year later he presents Immigration, where she sings in Spanish again, and returns to Argentina for a series of concerts, before continuing with a tour that covers the main cities of the United States, And in 2022 he embarks on a tour of Europe, including dates in Barcelona, London, Paris, Madrid and Berlin. And that's where we get to June 4, 2023, the day he releases his new record label., Electro folk.
Meola, on this occasion, goes back to basics to produce 5 sensitive tunes, which sound like old blues, like folk music of a lifetime and an evident and well-received touch of Latin essence. His thing is as simple as turning on his amplifier, playing his black Fender Stratocaster, and making good use of the reverbs in his singing, and that's it. His lyrics speak of heartbreak, travel, and more heartbreak. The solo format, with its minimal stage setup, contributes to the image of a musician who retreats into intimacy to share his misadventures with his audience—misadventures that any human being can experience, but in this case, made with a strange and fascinating tone that combines the Buenos Aires accent with everyday New York speech. Everything is direct, simple, and seductive, so that anyone who wants to understand (and be moved) can do so without overthinking it. Anyone, at some point in their life, can identify with Meola's fragile voice when he says, for example, in his song Union City:
«"But I'm tired of talking about love,
tired of talking about you and me
and of everything that could have been different
(Nothing could have been different).
In short, it wouldn't be a bad idea to listen and repeat several times on the stereo the almost 19 minutes of good and beautiful laments that Alejandro Meola has just released. Electro Folk It can perfectly alleviate a sad afternoon in our lives.
