On October 2, one of Sony Spain’s big bets for this season will be published: Arde Bogotá’s new album. It’s called ‘Manufacturas del Club de la Gente Sola (MCGS)’ and until now we had released two singles, the rocker and continuation ‘Instrucciones’ (the one with the “bam bam” and the “tractomula”) and the very Love of Lesbian ‘Bigger Splash’. This was also the name under which Antonio García’s group performed by surprise this summer at several festivals.
The album was produced by Joe Chiccarelli (Russian Red, Morrissey) and recorded at the legendary EastWest Studios in Los Angeles. There is a budget after the double platinum achieved by ‘Cowboys of the A3’.
The third single released today, ‘El Club de la Gente Sola’, is somewhat different. It is not their most commercial song, something that did not concern them when they released their 8-minute song ‘La Torre Picasso’, but it is a considerable change of record that is worth evaluating. Not in vain do Sony claim that it is the theme that has cost them the most to finish in this era, and the one that has changed the most during the process.
Beneath all the testosterone of the promotional photo (is it serious?) and all the gratuitous pomp of the press release (“Chronic loneliness as a shared epidemic under the neon lights. The symptomatology of an indolent heart whispered among smoke, early mornings, lost looks and construction areas like dance floors”), luckily hides a very simple and understandable song for anyone.
Firstly, ‘El Club de la Gente Sola’ will be immediately recognized and distinguished from the rest of the setlist as soon as it is played at one of their concerts. In a way, it is a ballad impregnated on one side with funk and on the other with post-punk, which Golpes Bajos could have played (especially the chorus). Secondly, it serves to corroborate the healing spirit that music has, with that air of collective drama “the evil of many, the consolation of fools.” The first stanza is for the boys alone; the second, for the girls. And third, it contains a reference to Beyoncé’s ‘Single Ladies’ (“you’re going to change her story like Beyoncé with weddings”).
As for the video, with a retro style and vintage elements, it was filmed entirely in Cartagena, in the old underground submarine tunnels of El Espalmador. Guillermo Aliaga directs “a kind of crash test set in the 80s, a hermetic laboratory where the invention is subjected to extreme tests while a group of people watch, expectant, ready to test it. They are, precisely, The Lonely People’s Club.
