We were on notice. The four splendid previews that Iman Amar and Ana Valladares had given us, that is, Goodbye Lovesthey already made us predict that this debut full-length titled “The way” It was going to be something very serious. And so it has been.
And all thanks to several determining factors. First of all, the six songs that we didn’t know about keep the bar equally high and even in some cases (delicious “Farewell Song”) surpass what has been presented so far. Second, they have managed to ensure that the innocent, pizpireto and naive spirit of their tunes remains intact but, at the same time, they have provided them with a variety of registers and a depth in the arrangements that raises the question of how they will be able to carry this album. to the direct. And, to round off the move, the duo displays a great knowledge of the structures that move within a genuine pop song, to which we must add that psychedelic touch of a sixties vocation, but without losing sight of the here and the now, the most absolute present.
All these inputs can be found in “The way”, but none of that would work if there were no great songs on the album. And this is where Iman and Ana, with the estimable help of the third ‘love’ in contention, Guille Briales, have given a real lesson when it comes to combining catchy choruses and ingenious lyrics. You just have to listen to that stark description of the toxic masculinity that she becomes. “Hail Boy” to realize it. A topic that would have become a television hit fifty years ago in Massiel’s mouth. But then they come up with a song like “New faces” and one cannot ignore how good it suits that person. ‘notebook in the attic’ those trumpet arrangements of border airs. A splendorous Arthur Lee touch (Love), combined with Jeanette’s innocence. In “Black smoke” They become solemn in a half-time with seemingly simple prose, but with an enormous amount of depth. Rarely has pure and simple depression been described so accurately. (“My loneliness is like a blindfold, it covers my eyes and blinds them.”) It is followed by “The blame”, a tribute to the ‘broken pipe’ sound and to Las Grecas, with that fat, trotting bass full of gypsy blackness. A complete success. “That place” It sounds delicate with arrangements that seem taken from the manual of maestro Augusto Algueró. And here I have to make a point about the work that Raúl Pérez has done in his Sevillian studio in La Mina. A whole sound laboratory that he has given to this “The way” a robustness that can face any production carried out beyond our borders. “The way”, The theme is infected by the border sounds and the aroma of the desert of the “spaghetti western” with Morricone on an altar. “Sunny” It’s pure La Femme “lucid theater” and reminds us of the connection that Iman and Ana have with the French combo. “Cumbia of the snake” It is the most misplaced song on the album, but it still fulfills its function thanks to a very well-told fable that erases any suspicion with a stroke of the pen. “The mermaid” For me, it is the weakest of the lot, with that tragic-romantic touch that would have fit into the Sergio and Estíbaliz songbook. And the finishing touch is that fusion between Jeanette’s universe and that of Guille Milkyway from La Casa Azul materialized in a “farewell song” that literally fulfills its function.
Goodbye Loves They are one of the projects that can arouse the most interest in 2024. But, as we stated before, now they have the most difficult path to travel. That of defending, with the solidity that a band should provide, songs that could be stripped of their arrangements, yes. But then I am clear that it would not be the same. And the clothes have a lot of weight.