SOUNDTRACK: RAQUEL SOFIA-Tiny Desk Concert #395 (October 11, 2014).
Raquel Sofia has been a backup singer for Juanes and Shakira and has no come out front to make really catchy songs about breaking up with people.
She sings in Spanish (although her English is excellent) about love and loss and the blurb correctly notes “it’s hard to believe that feeling bad can sound this good. ” Her songs are all acoustic, but with a fiery punk flair (to match her partially shaved head).
Of the first song, “No Me Importas,” she says she wrote this song about a guy who didn’t call me. It is a rollicking fun song which starts out with a big HEY! before rocking out. Her voice is awesome–loud and powerful and for this blow off song, she’s got a great sense of bite in her voice. And again, for a break up song it’s really fun and even has a with a clap along section
“Agridulce” (which means Bittersweet) is a more mellow ballad. She says she was in a relationship and was about to get dumped. Too much damage had been done to say she was sorry so she had to write a song. She says it’s her next single. It’s a pretty song and at he end, she says that the look on his face when she told him she wrote the song made the trouble worth it.
She says she wrote “Te Amo Idiota” which means “I love you, Idiot” in the darkest, darkest hour of her life. It’s an impassioned song. Not quite as fun as the others, but really good. The end is really great.
She wasn’t expecting to do a fourth song, but they ask her to and she plays “Hombre Como Tú.” She says she was mad at a guy and was sure she was never going to see him again. So she wanted to make sure he knew exactly what she thought about him. We never find out what he thought of that one. She says it’s her next single (even though the other song was also her next single). It’s incredibly catchy and even if you don’t know what she’s saying.
Hearing how great her songs are, it make me want to have a bad break up with her so she can write some more great songs (especially since I wouldn’t know what she’s saying).
[READ: June 11, 2016] Bourbon Island 1730
I joked with Sarah about the disclaimer at the beginning oft his book which says that “Bourbon Island 1730 is not intended to be a historical account. It is a fictional narrative, freely inspired by historical events.” And I joked because one of the main characters is a bird and the other looks like a dog or something. So clearly not historically accurate.
But I soon learned that this is a more or less accurate account of piracy and slave trading around Bourbon Island in the 1730s.
Although as with a lot of Trondheim’s books I found this one to be lacking focus somewhat.
I wasn’t always sure exactly what was happening. And one of the problems to me especially was that the book deals with racism and slavery, but it wasn’t always clear who was who because the characters were animals–how do you depict racism with animals if the animals don’t seem to conform to a race? (more…)
I Just Read About That... 