The Album of the Week is ‘Oniria popular’, which may be the best album of Xoel López’s entire solo career. At the very least, the one that “best balances its Anglo-Saxon influences with the national ones, and to a lesser extent the Latin ones,” citing the criticism of this same medium.
One of the key songs on ‘Oniria popular’ is ‘Campos de Castilla para siempre’, to the point that the song itself serves to open and close the album in two different versions: the first more rock, the second more folk.
‘Campos de Castilla para siempre’ narrates a car trip from A Coruña to Madrid, understanding the automobile as a space that encourages “reflection and balance”, in contrast to the speed of urban life. López uses two references to develop the composition: on the one hand, the lyrics of Antonio Machado; on the other, the psychedelia of the Beatles.
The exciting song is based on a deeply evocative imagery of Machado, in its use of symbols related to the road (“the road does not lie”), the Castilian landscape (“the vineyards bleed”, “the grapes of God’s furrows”) or the explicit mention of Soria. The Beatles are invoked in the title, but also in the musical composition, of a psychedelic and pop nature.
The connection with the Beatles goes further, since ‘Campos de Castilla para siempre’ has been mixed and mastered by David Greenbaum, who has worked with Paul McCartney. With a luxurious instrumental palette that includes synths, guitars, strings, Hammond organ and choirs, López builds a psychedelic poem about a self in transit, who “finds in the car the last haven of peace and introspection, a place to take stock and dialogue with oneself.”
