Everyone's got a soundtrack to their lives, no matter if those particular tracks coloured either their blue or good times. In my particular case, my summer of 2007 used this very special recording by an Spaniard duo called 'Nena Daconte' (Consisting of Mai Meneses and composer Kim Fanlo), whom re-released their debut 'He Perdido Los Zapatos' with a couple of extra tracks to coincide with the success of '¿En Qué Estrella Estará?' - The official song of 'La Vuelta Ciclista a España 2007'.
To be honest, the discovery of this album was a bit random, since I already disliked the aforementioned song thanks to it being a bit overplayed everywhere (For Christ's sake, I coudn't turn on the TV without hearing the friggin' thing!) and Mai's vocals being totally off puting (she struggles to reach some of the high notes). Well, thing is that, in one of my downtown trips all 'round Bilbao, I visited an indie record store that managed to catch my attention - so, while I was taking a glance of all of the CD's laying all over the store, I stumbled with this particular album that had a strange coverart that grabbed my curiosity. So, I asked the owner if he could play a bit of the record for me to preview it and he refused (the cunt!), but since the front of the album was alluring enough to tie down my collector's side - I bought the album dirt cheap (with a couple of extras to fill up some gaps in my collection, as always ;D).
I went home after having a nice dinner at El Corte Inglés, and promtly opened the case, just to find out a promotional card announcing the CD included the hit single '¿En Qué Estrella Estará?' - I evidently cringed - it was that particular song that made my teeth grit and drove me to oblivion. Still, I took a deep breath and put the album on my CD player - and then there was no turning back. In many years, I didn't have the pleasure to listen to such a beautifully crafted collection of recordings, that deals with depression, sadness, the fear of being alone the rest of your life, the coldness of being involved in a putrid relationship and the beauty of dealing with darkness and hard times with self-deprecation. Nena Daconte also scored another massive feat in my books, being the first all-spanish-spoken album to crack my yearly Top 5 list of favourite albums - peaking at #2 in that very same list on 2007.
Here's the link to download the album:
This album has helped me in so many ways it's not funny, and I truly hope you give it a chance to shine on your player, at least once.
See ya in my next entry, fellas :).
Txetxu // Manu.
