Clara Viñals continues to cultivate her charming, delicate, kaleidoscopic, and sensuous pop. But in ‘L’encant’ she has taken a small turn in direction. This is an album less summery and more intimate than ‘Lamor fa calor’ or ‘La boca aigua’. And in the lyrics Viñals leaves behind her usual buzzing irony and reveals her more vulnerable and tender side.
Viñals herself explains in an interview with Mondosonoro that there is a return to her early records. She says that, now that everyone is using urban rhythms, she is tired. They still linger here a bit, though. But they take a while to come out. Because the album starts in an infectious and organic way with ‘Amb tu podría estar’, one of those pop pieces she does so well: a love declaration not grandiose but, at the same time, emotive and funny, especially when she slips into reprise-disco mode and begins to sing “Està sent divertit!”. Or the soul-pop with which she bathes ‘Gener’, where she makes jealousy something sparkling.
We have to wait for ‘Repartit’ to reconnect with those urban rhythms, though in a toned-down and tropical version, with Clara rapping until reaching a chorus that invites dancing very close. Or ‘Loteria’, where delicate reggaeton rhythms mingle with synthetic pop.
Viñals brings us back to her acoustic on ‘Tan brillant’, with hints of bossa nova and synthetic trumpets. She is tender, but also sensual, in her narration of how a romance begins. ‘Quines coses de mi’ is the one that most recalls ‘Els afores’, the album and the song. Clara asks the beloved person, whispering, what things about her can attract them, in a mix of rapture and surprise. ‘Una moneda’ closes cheerfully and briefly: it harks back to the atmospheres of Single, with its blend of bossa, orientalism and playful effects.
Viñals composes and produces the whole album. It is surprising to see that, instrumentally, she only handles programming and samplers. And to her new love: the omnichord, with which she deliciously reinterprets some of the tracks in an EP available only as a download for those who bought the album. A wonderful way to round it off. Because, as always, the one thing we can fault Clara Viñals for is brevity. ‘L’encant’ contains only nine songs and 21 minutes in length. But, as always, it gives us just enough to want more and more.
