SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MARIA ELENA SILVA – DULCE

MARIA ELENA SILVA
DULCE
ASTRAL SPIRITS/BIG EGO RECORDS

Dulce is María Elena Silva’s fourth album and her first since her phenomenal Big Ego Records debut, Eros in 2021. Chris Schlarb, who produced Eros, has produced the album but that is where the similarity to that album ends. Dulce is very different, and at a different stage in Silva’s life. The album is less jazz influenced and more rock, pop, and in some regards folk.  Yes, there are songs that lean towards jazz, but elsewhere she is experimenting with her voice and sound and it works.

The album opens with “Love, If It Is So”, which features guitarist Marc Ribot and percussionist Stephen Hodges, playing together for the first time since Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs (1985). The song shares the sparse arrangement and dark imagery of Waits, both musically and lyrically. It is almost bluesy but the buildup throughout is dramatic.

Elsewhere the gentleness of “Silver Linings”, which features beautiful acoustic guitar, really takes shape due to her vulnerable vocals and Ribot’s guitar. It is an incredible moment. It centres the listener once again and brings the focus back to Silva and her lyrics, stories and voice.

She sings in Spanish and English on the album.

Dulce is an album of an artist who continues to mature and write moving and beautiful music,  who pours their heart and soul into their art. It is obviously deeply personal and her sometimes whispery vocals forces the listener to tune into her. Listen to her perfect vocal at the beginning of the closing track, “Sugar Water”. She drifts from English to Spanish and one cannot help but be moved by her performance and the song. It shifts from very sedate into an explosion of Avant Garde, almost prog rock. Few artists have the skills to pull this off.

This is a powerful album full of stories that will impact the listener. Silva has created an album that is honest, musical, and entertaining. There are curveballs at every turn, and the listener is all the better for her wild imagination and ability to express herself in this manner.

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