Discografía

Nombre

Y.

Más Datos

On June 30th 2009, Bebe is set to put out her new album Y. (i.e. “And That’s That”), five years since her debut Pafuera Telarañas (Blowing Away The Cobwebs) first came out. A lustrum without releasing any new songs, taking a moment for herself, marking her own natural life pace, always on the alert, paying attention with open senses. The creative process of her new album has been a long and thorough one, some kind of a mental and physical emotional journey in total solitude, and each song in the album is a different mood at each stop of this journey.

Produced by Carlos Jean, who has also produced her first album, Y. is a piece of work which will surely surprise those who are expecting a sequel of sorts to Pafuera Telarañas. Bebe has taken a chance, she’s courageously searched for simplicity, searching for the essential to accompany her lyrics, crafting an almost-minimalist and contemporary pop, venturing into entirely new ground within the Spanish music. Here is an album to enjoy with relish, to get to know a unique artist who fights tooth and nail to defend her world and her room, but who sometimes does not mind to truthfully and sensuously open herself up, however, keeping something to herself, not revealing it all. Y. is a daring album, all about courage, conceived on the fringes of today’s music, featuring a rather distinctive use of popular language –at times echoing the “castúo” dialect from Extremadura where she hails from– and aimed to offer something new, ready to cause surprise. Let’s set out on a track by track journey!

“I’ve been sleeping six feet underground and now I’ve decided to sleep above ground. I’ve spent so much time grumbling about what I couldn’t understand that now I rather wait till dawn when the light comes.” This is how the album starts, with Bebe’s voice a capella. This is the song titled No Más Llorá (No More Crying), a statement of principles, an account of the journey which this album is: “I start my journey on the road, at last, walking along in my little house on wheels. Time will be what I want it to be. Never a knot, never a wall, just what I want it to be.” Featuring guitars by Diego Pozo (Los Delinqüentes), Víctor Iniesta (El Bicho) and Carlos Jean, the flamenco voice of Rancapino Jr and the cajon box-drum of Rafael García (Los Delinqüentes), No Más Llorá is a song based on programming and bass arrangements by Carlos Jean, supported by Spanish guitars and which perfectly reflects the spirit of the album. An excellent opening track which ends up with a rumba beat and which sounds like something new, different from anything heard before and marking the new proposal by Bebe –who, when she sings, is always claiming her individuality and her world– “I’ve been humming in solitude hundreds of songs which are just about to burst out [...] and a few songs which I wish that no one ever gets to understand ‘cause they are just for myself, for my thoughts, for my reflection, for myself only.”

Next, the album keeps on with her first single, Me Fui (I Left). “I left to miss you, I left to come back again, I left to be on my own, I left ‘cause...” It features another stripped out opening, just with Bebe’s vocals and the Spanish guitar of Diego Pozo, evolving into a subtle reggae groove with lyrics opened to different interpretations: “‘Cause I was so close, so close that I can barely see what I’ve got in front of my eyes, your hands which are no longer hands and wishfully thinking that they will one day bring me back to life.” With its acoustic earthly nature, it’s a superb and inspired song, with certain melancholy air enriched with a lively rhythm and supported by a simple –stripped down and concise but very precise and effective– instrumentation. Spanish electric guitars, vintage sounds, subtle percussions and... Bebe’s voice more expressive than ever; exciting, with swing, perfect at a convincing and powerful chorus. “Where were you when I was calling you, where were you when my voice was turning so small that it would not come out but drown in a room or inside me” sings Bebe in this enthralling and open track, a song let out from that personal place of her own where the artist from Extremadura (western Spain) creates her music.

Busco-Me (I’m Looking For Myself) [“One day I’ll learn the why’s behind some things, I try to learn how my heart walks, I rush, I plunge into the emptiness. Then I go to pieces out of fear, but I keep on searching”], starts with that natural atmosphere which runs through the whole album and keeps growing until it reaches its highest tension. It features superb instrumental arrangements by Carlos Jean at programming, bass and electric guitar. A song which courageously dives into the inside and gives way to Sinsentido (No Meaning.) “Oh my body, my poor little body, what a hard life I’ve given you all these years where I’ve been losing my way” sings Bebe in this song which again features her stripped out vocals, with Pablo Novoa’s electric guitar providing a vintage atmosphere and the acoustic guitars of Diego Pozo and Carlos Jean contributing with some character. Dry, essential, earthy sounds, and a good use of rhythm and atmosphere, to end up singing with certain melancholy: “I’m leaving like this ‘cause, anyway, making my own decision is the only real freedom I’ve got left.”

Then it comes Escuece (It Stings and Irritates) [“Pure disappointment, it stings, it irritates. But my house will be rebuilt again even if a tornado destroys it all. I know how to survive and if not I will learn how to, no bitterness. I do it to find the purest of happiness”], is a track about heartbreak, getting away from the atmosphere of previous tracks and adopting some kind of an skilful Dixieland-big band-style, lively and street wise, featuring the trombone by Ove Larsson, brass by Arturo Soriano and guitars by Carlos Jean, Diego Pozo and Pablo Novoa. Cuanto + Me Sujetas (The More You Hold Me) [“It’s no use for you to fill up my honey jar ‘cause when carrying it out my mouth turned into bitterness. The more you hold me, the more I feel fear of falling down”] it’s another intimate gem from the album, barely supported by electric guitars and programming, maybe evoking some of the best moments of the Cuban trova but maintaining the great Bebe’s personality as singer-songwriter in a rather schematic song, simple but bursting with exuberant lyricism.

Qué Mimporta A Mí (What Do I Care) [“I’m extreme and hard and what do I care what they want to think about me as long as I’m able to escape away from this whirlpool of lies”] is a furious, sensual, heavy song, featuring rapped lyrics and a vibrant funk-ish rhythm on drums, evolving into a more rocky tension taking turns with more relaxed atmospheres holding a great swing and some superb arrangements for one of the most instrumentally complex songs in this record. La Bicha (The She-Creature) kicks off with Bebe singing really low “La Niña De Fuego” (a zambra flamenco song by Quintero, León & Quiroga made famous by legendary Manolo Caracol flamenco singer), following after with a rap “do not underestimate this creature even if she hasn’t got much flesh on her waist. Come on take off my wrapper and you’ll see, you’ll see... You’ll see you fool, that I can wear the pants when I want but I like this little skirt more so you can put your hand under it and me pull off anything that can be pulled off.” Here we find a more bold and carnal Bebe debuting on guitar and Carlos Jean taking care of everything else, with quite a Brazilian air at programming in a track with explicitly sexual content and more spoken than sang, featuring hardly any melody, something new in the repertoire of the singer-songwriter from Extremadura.

Se Fue (She Left) [“There are eyes which can’t find places where to stop and look, however there are other eyes which strip your dress off and leave”] features an original, rolling, sensual, simple, Caribbean-like rhythm, with a very inspired chorus and Bebe singing more gently than ever. A superb sample of minimal pop which gives way to Pa Una Isla (To An Island) [“You are the man who whispers to the horses and your voice tames me, but time is sharpening my aim and don’t take offence ‘cause this she-lion is just showing you her canine a little for you not to forget what kind of animal you are playing with. My land, do not touch it, not even mention it”], another voluptuous and passionate song moving to a primitive and acoustic rock beat, a light, danceable, winding track.

Nostaré (I Won’t Be There) [“I won’t ever let my tears to prevent me from seeing all that beauty around me; so far I feel you so close and so close I felt you so far”] is another example of Bebe’s most frail side, a song kicking off with water drops and which, again, melancholically dives into love disappointment helped by an instrumental support very well managed by Carlos Jean, searching for the simple, the basic and essential, caring about sounds and stripping it of the superfluous. And at the last stretch of the album, Pa mi casa (Back to My Home) [“Now I go back home, I say goodbye to you for a while, I feel like being that girl whom no one gave much credit”] has a Mediterranean swing, popular fiesta, beautifully sang by Bebe, with a near to pasodoble-rockabilly beat for one of the most cheerful tracks in the album. It follows Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh [“Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, I like you, I like you and your brother”], a nice surprise closing the record where we find Bebe singing just accompanied by Javier Rojas’ bass in a stripped-down song telling the story of a threesome which will prove disturbing for some people.

Those are the tracks that make up Y., an album recorded and mixed in Cadiz and Madrid by José Luis Crespo, and mastered by Ian Cooper at the Metropolis Studios in London. Among the musicians who have played in the record, as well as producer Carlos Jean (programming, bass, guitars, Rhodes, Hammond, Mellotron), we can find Diego Pozo from Los Delinqüentes (guitars), Pablo Novoa (guitars), Víctor Iniesta “El Bicho” (guitars, chorus), Javier Rojas (bass), Guillermo Domercq and Rafael García of Los Delinqüentes (percussions), Juni Martín (drums) and brass section by Ove Larsson and Arturo Soriano. They have all contributed to create a very personal atmosphere which wraps Bebe’s new songs up, building a language where each instrument, each chord and note, have their raison d’être, filling spaces but not saturating them and allowing for the voice to fly freely.

With Y., Bebe breaks five years of silence since Pafuera Telarañas (Blowing Away The Cobwebs), an album which sold more than 500,000 copies in Spain reaching #1 and being awarded five Platinum Records, staying longer than 100 weeks in the album sales chart. It also achieved Gold Record status in four countries (United States, Italia, Argentina and Colombia), and it went on to win the Ondas Award in 2004, a Latin Grammy in 2005... Then, in June 2006, at the peak of her popularity and carrying the burden of success on her back, Bebe announced her temporary retreat from the music industry and set out for a long journey.

When she got back, in May 2008 Bebe went to Cadiz to concentrate on all the notebooks she’d been writing, to select some material for an album where you can find melancholy but not sadness, reflection and playfulness, sex... It followed intense hard work with producer Carlos Jean, experimenting and searching for sounds to be natural and related to earth; featuring the wind, the sea, the night... By fall 2008, Bebe gathered with her band members in Madrid, in the rehearsal room which became just about like their home. With Guille, Javi, Omar, Juni, Cata, Berni, Paquito... Bebe keeps practically the same team that she left when she took a break, they all make up a very close-knit group with her manager Pito, with Puri, and with the people who have been working on the album like sound engineer José Luis Crespo, and despite Markitos Bayón not being there any longer, some part of his spirit remains.

It’s an environment where friendship, work and affection melt and where family plays a key role for Bebe. And this singer-songwriter who grew up in Zafra and Montijo (western Spain), attached to her land, her family and her people, is set to undertake a new adventure with a new album, new songs and new prospects. Considering herself fortunate and happy to be back again with her team, Bebe is facing this new phase in her career filled with excitement. And that’s that (Y.)

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