This week the second album of Rumia, a young Spanish half, half Portuguese, resident in Berlin, who embrace aesthetics as disparate as the singer-songwriter environment, the Pop Bedroom or the Primal Trip-Hop.
‘Old Enough To Save Myelf’ remembers artists so lost throughout the decades – and as melancholic – as Lamb or Hooverphonic, in some of the most personal songs of this project, such as ‘KEPT All The Pain’. The cut that inspires the name of the album talks about a “generational trauma”, about the weight of holding a family … who had to hold her. Another of the main singles of the project, ‘Role Model’, is a farewell of those “roles.”
The entire album moves between organic textures (pianos, especially) and electronic. Among their influences are people more linked to the “singer -songwriter” environment, in the sense of a king’s wool or a Hope Sandoval, while in Berlin he claims to have soaked with more radiohead type electronics.
Which does not mean that he turns his back on his roots. In the album, in general in English, the songs intoned in other languages stand out. In Portuguese, ‘dear’, it is a very free adaptation that Rumia wanted to take away from the fado, immersing himself in a more Drum & Bass environment.
On the other hand, the topic that cuts the most hiccups is the entoned in Spanish, ‘The girl from nowhere’, a folk guitar theme that deals with what it implies not really belonging to any country, and “not speaking 100% any language.” If you ever migrated, or your parents had to.
For the most part, Rumia offers songs of pure British alternative pop, close to people like Wolf Alice or the first Kate Nash, as is the case of ‘Emergency’, ‘I’m onte you’, or the one we have recently included in Playlists, ‘i’m not fine’. Manuel Colmenero (Vetusta Morla, Shinova …) has produced the album while Adrián Seijas has collaborated in the arrangements (Xoel López, Marilia Monzón …)
After passing through Marilians a few days ago, Rumia now travels to Portugal to present the album in several Fnacs, as well as Germany to give some concerts. In Spain it acts in Madrid (Maravillas Sala, April 24), Barcelona (Sala Taro, May 15), Zaragoza (Creedence Sala, May 16), Tolosa (May 17, Bonberea), Vigo (May 22, La Peca laundry) and A Coruña (May 23, Malavida). Details, in your Linktree.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjizeyq83ou
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn1t65-h8qy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkhyxlnpxw0
