Today is Wednesday, August 27, and as you have no doubt surmised, it’s a fine day for a beer. It is also a fine day to head to your nearest independent record store – or click your way to your favorite online retailer – to peruse the week’s newest offerings.
Released this week by Bloodshot Records is De Donde Eres, the latest from cross-cultural quartet Cordero. If the Spanish title isn’t a sufficient giveaway, the six-note horn flourish that starts the album serves as a singular proclamation of Cordero’s roots in Latin music. In fact, the entire album is sung in Spanish (a first for Cordero). Almost as quickly as those initial notes signal the Latin flavor of De Donde Eres, though, other ingredients start to establish themselves. Opener “Quique” builds to a boisterous call and response chorus, only to give way to quiet contemplation in “Guardasecretos.” The trumpet again is first to set the tone, but its real job here is to fill the empty space between singer Ani Cordero’s melancholy musings.
Cordero (photo by Cody Ranaldo)
If you speak Spanish as fluently as we do here at the hub of beer, the precise meanings of the songs may be a mystery. But (as a peek at the English translations of the lyrics confirms) what the imagination conjures is, at its core, not so far off the mark. Cordero’s vocals are restrained. She never fully lets loose on even the liveliest tracks; nor does she fall prey to melodramatic brooding on the more somber laments. Framed throughout by sparse but expressive instrumentation, though, the apprehension in “Veneno,” the assertiveness of “La Yegua,” and the consoling tone of “La Sombra” are all apparent, even if some of the poetry is lost.
Download Cordero's "Ruleta Rusa" (Russian Roulette). It's free!
At its most celebratory, there is a sense of serenity to De Donde Eres. At its most mournful, a thread of hopefulness remains. It’s a complex emotional journey – and one that’s certainly best accompanied by a beer. Against a backdrop of both assertive, exotic Latin flair, and delicate, nuanced, sometimes elusive emotional content, the palate clamors for simplicity and clarity. Just such qualities are easily found in Cordero’s own backyard of Brooklyn, NY.
Brooklyn Brewery’s flagship Brooklyn Lager is a seductive golden delight. Its pleasantly floral hop aroma gently recedes into a subtle hop bitterness and muted but lingering sweetness. Straightforward, balanced, and thoroughly refreshing, Brooklyn Lager is just the stabilizing force to pull Cordero’s ample juxtapositions into sharp focus.
