Welcome to the first installment of Ear 2 Da Sky! Each week, I will be going over topics within music culture and reviewing albums across genres, eras and artists that are submitted by readers like you, and listeners of my radio show every Monday at 11 p.m. on WHUS 91.7 FM! For this week’s submission, I’m going to be going over Natalia Lafourcade’s self-titled album.
“Natalia Lafourcade” was the Mexican native’s debut studio album, released in the summer of 2002. It opens with the very short “Introducción.” It’s a short, sweet and intimate introduction to Lafourcade as she scats through an instrumental-less recording, trying to recall how her own song goes, jovially surprised at the fact she forgets her own stuff sometimes. This is the first of the four-track run that really sets the tone for the rest of the album.
The second track off the album, “Busca un Problema,” plays a large role in this aforementioned tone-setting run of songs. As this pop-rock track goes on, it’s a slow but sure build-up with a fun dancey and disco-esque pay-off at the end, transitioning into track three.
“En el 2000” is another song that sounds very much like a 2000s pop-rock song (understandably so), while also taking in inspiration from traditional sounds and musical elements of Latin folk music. This song paired up with the calm, cool and collected bossa nova sound of the fourth track. “El Destino” brings the listener on an auditory roller coaster ride. Although it may not take you on loops and turns like Six Flags would, it’s more like a nice local fair roller coaster ride. It won’t mess your hair up, it won’t make your heart drop and it definitely will not make you revisit the lunch you had a few hours earlier. It’s a roller coaster nonetheless, and it feels just right.
Coming after that four-track run, we get “Mango,” a disco-house-dance-inspired song. The song is great, albeit I am a sucker for a good disco-house-dance-DnB-jungle-garage track and anything in between. After that, we circle back to some bossa nova in “Elefantes” and continue to weave in and out of different genres, as we can hear a mix of rhythm and blues, as well as some jungle in “Otra Vez.” Appropriately for the era, Lafourcade also shakes up an already calculated chaotic project, with a pop ballad in “Mírame, Mírate.”
Natalia Lafourcade’s self-titled debut album is in no negative way a product of the times. While it does have that 2000s sound and feel, it’s a multi-hyphenated, genre-blending project that also gave listeners small glimpses into the future. “Natalia Lafourcade” was a great debut album that would go on to lay the groundwork for an even greater career.
3.5/5
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