The 15 pop and rock discs that must be heard today (October 2021)

La clase media del rock muestra su poderío: nuevos discos de Quique González, Lori Meyers o Ángel Stanich. Los veteranos siguen abriendo sus archivos con joyas: Neil Young y los Rolling Stones. La confirmación del talento de la inglesa Rebecca Lucy Taylor y su sofisticado proyecto Self Esteem. Y jóvenes con trabajos llenapistas: la californiana Remi Wolf y el cubano Cimafunk. Son algunos de los puntos álgidos discográficos de este mes.

- Quique González, ‘South in the Valley’

¿Quién es? Lo recurrente es decir que Quique González es el heredero de Antonio Vega y Enrique Urquijo.But that stage has already happened: González has been building for his own path from Independence, because the way to take his career does not fit that of the music industry.

¿Es tan bueno Sur en el valle? Para encontrar al Quique González rockero deberás revisitar anteriores trabajos suyos.Here is the Madrid in its musically appeased version, with the instruments sounding in an absolutely clear way: few so elegant rock records in the treatment of pianos, guitars, harmonics, organs ... The increasingly dragged voice of González tells some stories thatThey are letters that the musician writes to someone (he almost always addresses the second person) about a country and twilight atmosphere.South in the valley works like a magnificent music for autumn.

- Self Esteem, ‘Prioritis Pleasure’

¿Quién es? “Estaba cansada de ser una dulce chica heterosexual en un grupo pop”.Thus justified Rebecca Lucy Taylor his departure, after a decade, of the Indie Slow Club group.The British declared Bisexual and set up her Self Esteem project, with which she completes her second album, prioritis pleasure.

¿Es tan bueno Prioritise Pleasure? Mientras las grandes estrellas femeninas del pop se reconvierten al folk indie introspectivo (Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Lorde…), Rebecca Lucy Taylor prefiere canciones majestuosas, coros grandilocuentes y mensajes de autorreafirmación personal."Be strong", repeat in several pieces.If Katy Perry is pop picle to dance and the last Beyoncé is intricate, Self Esteem stands right in the middle: quality pop and sophisticated, sometimes even too much, but at the same time easy to listen.

- Brian Setzer, ‘Gotta Have The Rumble’

¿Quién es? El hombre que rescató un género muerto, el rockabilly, en dos ocasiones: en los ochenta con Stray Cats y de los noventa en adelante con la Brian Setzer Orchestra.

¿Es tan bueno Gotta Have The Rumble? Es como todos los discos de este excelente músico: divertido.Rockabilly, swing, Hawaiian music, guitar juggers ... music that immediately puts a radiant smile.

- Neil Young, ‘Carnegie Hall 1970 (Live)’

¿Quién es? Un hippy previsor: Neil Young grabó la mayoría de las conciertos de su larga carrera.And there are thousands.Did you notice that after decades that was going to be gold?Maybe ...

¿Es tan bueno Carnegie Hall 1970 (Live)? Olvídate de todos los discos acústicos que tengas de Young, ya sean piratas u oficiales.Because this is the best.In 1970 the Canadian was shot: it had already passed through Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills Nash and Young and channeled a promising solo career.He was about to touch the creative sky with Harvest (1972).And I was only 25 years old!Accompanied by acoustic guitar and piano the musician prints another dimension to pieces such as Down by the River, Cinnamon Girl or Southern Man.It is an hour and a half of heavenly music, where the Canadian tests songs that he would then include in Harvest, like Old Man.

- The Hard-Ons, ‘I’m Sorry Sir, That Riff’s Been Taken’

¿Quiénes son? Veterana y respetada banda australiana que lleva desde los ochenta (con algunos parones) escupiendo punk en su faceta más lúdica.Attention, nostalgic of the Ramones ...

¿Es tan bueno I’m Sorry Sir, That Riff’s Been Taken? Se ha incorporado al grupo como cantante Tim Rogers, de los excelentes You Am I, que ha imprimido un concepto más melódico a una canciones que crepitan energía.Thus, we find spasms like Fucked Up Party sharing a party with a delicacy like Needles and Pins.They are 32 minutes of rabid and fun music.

- Mikel Erentxun, ‘Friends on Guard’

¿Quién es? Pocos músicos españoles triunfantes en los ochenta mantienen mejor perfil creativo que Mikel Erentxun, 56 años, reciente premio Ondas a su trayectoria.

¿Es tan bueno Amigos de guardia? La fórmula del disco de un solista formando dúos con colegas para repasar su carrera está muy vista y conviene acercarse con cautelas.All precautions are saved by immersing themselves in a job with two conclusions: what great repertoire Erentxun possesses, both with Duncan Dhu and alone;And how important these meetings are taking before the emotion and entertainment of commerciality.Except in a couple of pieces (the fades with Amaia and Andrés Calamaro), the album leaves a good feeling.Summit moments?Intact, with Quique González;Angel on fire, with Annie B Sweet;If you leave, with Xoel López, or touching eternity, with Ángel Stanish.

- Remi Wolf, ‘Juno’

¿Quién es? Una cantante californiana de 25 años que debuta en el disco largo con este Juno.

¿Es tan bueno Juno? ¿Has visto el vídeo de su canción Anthony Kiedis (sí, como el cantante de Red Hot Chili Peppers)? Si se quiere un resumen de lo que es Remi Wolf ahí está: colorista, divertida, bailable, espontánea, feliz.All Juno is like this: Pop-Soul-Funk so that every day are Friday night.

- Ángel Stanich, ‘Batiato dust’

¿Quién es? Músico cántabro, personal, a su bola, poco dispuesto a las entrevistas, de voz aflautada, ingenioso y con un mundo particular que lo conecta con las genialidades surrealistas del añorado Sergio Algora.

¿Es tan bueno Polvo de Battiato? El disco arranca con tres piezas que a buen seguro se corearan en los festivales del año que viene.Infallible songs with generational references: Agila's extreme, the witch fault, Ronaldo Nazário, Sabrina (who does not know) ... there is social criticism, personal traumas treated with humor ("Everyone is against me/ all are in garlic"), Amoresreckless and even a piece that if he listens to serrat will cause an accomplice smile (the mulete.2).The last part of the album is less light, but equally interesting.Stanich's psychedelic world is a good plan to spend many hours of listening.

- Several artists, ‘It’s to Good, Good Feeling: The Latin Soul of Fania Records’

¿Quiénes son? Fania Records es un sello conocido por impulsar la salsa y que también dio cobijo a agrupaciones y solistas que fusionaban los ritmos latinos con el soul, lo que se llamó bugalú, creado por los latinos afincados principalmente en Nueva York en los sesenta.This album goes from that.

¿Es tan bueno It’s A Good, Good Feeling…? Un irrefutable llenapistas que en su formato completo (existen versiones reducidas) incluye 89 canciones, casi cinco horas de vibrante soul latino.Some names: Joe Bataan, Ray Barreto, Mongo Santamaría, Bobby Valentin, Fania All Star ... First figures of the genre for an album that underlines a musical wealth in the sixties to which little attention was paid while the Beatles and the Rolling Stones razed.This album puts any guateque type in orbit.

- Jesse Malin, ‘Sad and Beautiful World’

¿Quién es? Lo más parecido a Johnny Thunders, incluso estéticamente.New York Jesse Malin began playing in a punk band to become a rocker and elegant chronicler of the city's lights and shadows, the tear of the finished relationships and having a beer only in a bar and observingto that thing so incomprehensible that it is the human species.

¿Es tan bueno Sad and Beautiful World? Más que bueno.A double, balanced album between the relaxed and agitated pieces.Malin shows that a rock and roll album can be recorded without many electric guitars, and a lot of piano.Mention to lyric, rich in intense adventures and with references to undisputed people: thousands Davis, Jim Jarmusch, Tom Waits ... musically here are Springsteen, Joe Strummer, Thunders (of course), Ray Davis ... we play the pay to Sad andBeautiful World will like one of the protagonists of this list, Quique González.

- Cimafunk, ‘The food’

¿Quién es? Erik Alejandro Iglesias, cubano de 32 años residente en la isla.Since 2017 they call Cimafunk.There is an idol;In Paris he filled a large place three nights;In Spain he has also acted successfully.All this stir is understood when their two albums are heard: therapy, of 2017, and this one that now edits, the food.

¿Es tan bueno El alimento? Absolutamente adictivo.It is as if James Brown and Benny Moré melt into a single person.Funk with Cuban rhythms from a 2021 production.George Clinton collaborates (let's greeted it), Lupe Fiasco, Chucho Valdés, Ceelo Green ... Gosadera from the first to the last song.A lift mood sung in Spanish and full of phrases to frame.

- Acapulco Apartments, ‘The Year of the Tiger’

¿Quiénes son? Granada, esa ciudad donde entras en un bar, te ponen una tapa como es debido y el camarero te cuenta que tiene una banda de rock.Acapulco Apartments were born there in 2015 and with this album they have earned playing in a good handful of festivals.

¿Es tan bueno El año del tigre? Para los que echen de menos a Los Planetas de los noventa y primeros dosmil: los de Super 8, Una semana en el motor de un autobús, Unidad de desplazamiento… La voz masculina y femenina se alternan en unas canciones que atacan la psicodelia, el pop ligero y hasta los requiebros flamencos.And the reader will ask: why listen to Acapulco apartments if the planets are already?For the same thing we listened to Oasis while the Beatles, or Soundgarden when Black Sabbath had already done it much earlier.

- Andrew Taylor and The Harmonizers, ‘Andrew Taylor and The Harmonizers’

¿Quién es? El cantante de los escoceses Dropkick, cuyo brío creativo le lleva a editar discos fuera del grupo.Like this, elaborated during the pandemic.

¿Es tan bueno Andrew Taylor and the Harmonizers? Es una delicia si te gustan las delicadas canciones de pop con muchos “uuuuu”.Highly recommended for the followers of the first Teenage Fanclub and the Jayhawks.

Andrew Taylor's album is not on Spotify, but can be heard in Bandcamp clicking here.

- Lori Meyers, ‘Infinite spaces’

¿Quiénes son? Hace un par de años los granadinos celebraron 20 años.A race, therefore, consolidated for one of the struts of the national indie and the festival season.

¿Es tan bueno Espacios infinitos? Se sienten cómodos Lori Meyers con la utilización de los teclados en detrimento de las guitarras.Pop songs as sizzy as relevant to this decision endors.There is the hedonism of present (almost a theme of Duran Duran), the urgency of punk (another ball in his career), the almost disc theme (that guitar to the nile rodgers) which is a last dance, or the floating cadence of In the mirror.Another category job with the firm of Lori Meyers.

- The Rolling Stones, ‘Tattoo You (Super Deluxe)’

¿Quiénes son? A principios de los ochenta el ecosistema Rolling Stones implosionaba.The relationship between the two leaders, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, was not even rough: it was non -existent.But you had to go on tour.The wheels had to follow their way to feed many families and guarantee the vanity bath of the protagonists. El milagro llegó de un elemento secundario e inesperado, el ingeniero de sonido Chris Kimsey, que escuchó decenas de horas de grabación de las sesiones de los discos anteriores de los setenta: Goats Head Soup, Black & Blue, Some Girls o Emotional Rescue.A melody note here, some guitar chords over there, that idea that was without concluding ... from those retales came the songs of Tattoo You.Curious: For many this patched means the last great album of the Stones.Edited in 1981, now the 40th anniversary version with extra content arrives.

¿Es tan bueno Tattoo You (Super Deluxe)? El trabajo concienzudo de Chris Kimsey no se paró en el descubrimiento de los 11 temas que componen el álbum original.There was more gold.Nine songs never launched before, most typical Stonian rocks, successful versions and the primal interpretation of Start Me Up, with rhythm Reggae!Also adorns the reissue of London in 1982.If Tattoo You is the last great album of the group, the tour was the last time they were seen fit.Everything, then, is worth it.