Esclarecidos – Por Amor Al Comercio

I wonder how can I explain to an international audience why Esclarecidos is so close to my heart and why this album, among them all, is the one I always come back to. Esclarecidos musically started being a new wave band very similar to what Martha and the Muffins started doing in the Echo Beach era, and while Martha&Muffins met Daniel Lanois which shaped their final sound, Esclarecidos met Suso Saiz, still one of the most respected producers in Spain (he was recently playing his ambient projects in London), with whom they gradually changed into jazzy pop and later into ambient and electronic pop with some nods to trip hop - the difference being that Esclarecidos were way more gradual in their evolution.

But what I love the most about them is how Cristina Lliso sings, with a mix of agressivity and vulnerability, about hurt feelings and about hangovers, mostly about feelings of the day after something. There is no better example than in the duo "Por amor al comercio" and "Unas congas y un café", about being on a hangover, aware of looking like shit, feeling like shit, aware that she should stay aware from toxic memories and not really being able to. Though other images and other metaphors intersect, and they are very obtuse and obscure (why does she does thing "for the love to comerce"?).

Other songs vary in their tone. "La carta" is about a letter from a whistleblower which is an excuse from the singing character to break up with her partner "though I care a lot about luxury", "Camina deprisa" is a description of a typical character of Madrid, , "Un par de frases" which is one of their best is about her meeting and old lover and preparing what she is going to say when she sees him (a rock musician) and realising that after all she will become mute as soon as she sees him, "Un agujero en el cielo" is an abstract love ballad that would have a better remake in their later compilation of the same name...

The music is not very well mixed with excessive mid tones (something common in Spanish music in the 80s) but the mix of rocksteady, motown, bossanova and new wave typical of the era (with the necessary sax) works for me. I just wish you all understand the weirdness of the lyrics to understand why there is so much to dig in here. Or in their career, in general.