There is no doubt that “Ash in the mouth” (Sixth Floor, 22) of Brenda Navarro It has been one of the great books of the past year. In it, Navarro already gave us clues about his love of music, so we couldn’t resist asking him about his records of his life. And here we have them.
Alanis Morissette – Jagged Little Pill (1995)
Imagine growing up in a home where Luis Miguel, José Luis Perales and Marisela are the music archive and suddenly this album so full of everything comes into your hands: hate, irony, heartbreak, tenderness. It was a before and after for me at the age of thirteen. This record, which I played over and over again on my discman, was the first connection I had with the voice of a complex, young, rocker woman. My role model. Sure, over time I strayed, but let no one doubt that I tried. It is a fresh, passionate, sincere album, like everything that is good.
Charly García – Hello! MTV Unplugged (1995)
I distrust anyone born at the end of the 20th century and who says they are a lover of language and who does not feel touched in any way by Charly García. He is our teacher, a musician and lyricist who knows how to use metaphor, rhythm, imperfection, politics, despair, among other things, to touch us with his music. This record, which I listened to about five years after it came out, helped me understand words as melodies and stories as small fragments capable of encapsulating time. Long live Charly Garcia.
Regina Spektor – Begin To Hope (2006)
When I heard “Fidelity”, the song with which Regina Spektor opens this album, I realized that I wasn’t in love with my then partner and I had the clarity that I wanted to fall in love like that, fall in love to have a broken heart. This record was the soundtrack of my passing at thirty. That search for a new beginning, a new life, something to hold on to. Every song is like that: a little tuneful but raw, upbeat but deep. And the piano, gods, what Regina does with the piano! It is one of my endearing records forever. “Field Below” and “Après Moi” are my favorites.
Bright Eyes . I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning (2005)
Conor Oberst is for me one of the best singer-songwriters of my generation. He has an extraordinary ability to make you feel many things with his voice and each of the songs on this album is magnificent, it could be the soundtrack of my life. It takes me to different moods and the last song is like an orgasm, you want to break everything in a moment, while your face fills with pleasure for the tremendous position on life that the group makes. Mike Mogis is a music arranging wizard.
Vampire Weekend – Contra (2006) – Modern Vampires Of The City (2013)
I can’t separate these two albums, for me they go together, following each other in a loop. With these two albums I managed to build my second novel “Ash in the mouth.” I listened to them so many times in 2019, 2020 and part of 2021 that I thought that one day I was going to break the digital platform or that they were going to report me as a bot. They are two albums that contradict each other, one is essentially youthful, disruptive, playful and the other is darker, more thoughtful, more conceived as a musical work. They seem like a great duo. Still, when I don’t know what to listen to, I go back to them to get in the mood Rafita (Ralph Wiggum) from “The Simpsons”sad and angry at the same time.
Thiago Pethit – Mal dos tropics (2019)
I firmly believe that Thiago Pethit is one of the most complex contemporary musicians I have ever heard. He is versatile, chameleonic and sensual. This album is proof of all this, as it is a kind of unique and unrepeatable Brazilian opera. The music of our time, syncretism, pain, sensuality, politics, death, life. The true evil of the tropics. Two phrases that haunt me: “They say that love is bad in two tropics/ But a fome is faster” and “They grab me like grapes are grabbed/ With the teeth of my hands/ Devorem-me”. But please, eat me like grapes!
