La Bien Querida - Fiesta (2021 Reissue)

Limited edition highlight yellow vinyl with download.

TRACKLIST: 01 Noviembre  02 Hoy  03 Queridos Tamarindos  04 Sentido Común  05 Piensa Como Yo  06 Cuando El Amor Se Olvida  07 La Muralla China  08 Monte De Piedad  09 En El Hemisferio Austral  10 Me Quedo Por Aquí  11 Monumentos En La Luna  12 Lunes de Pascua

Vinyl collectors have been searching desperately for copies of LA BIEN QUERIDA’s albums for a long time now, since they have been out of print for years. Here at Elefant, we are going to put an end to this situation, in reverse chronological order, in March, April and May, and with copies worthy of such a situation.

So, the first to come out, skipping over the recent “Brujería”, will be “Fuego”. Fire corresponds to the south, to the color red, to summer, to the heart. The fire of passion, of love and cholera, fire of the spirit and intuition. As Ana herself said: “It’s an album that talks a lot about a desire that reaffirms life, pleasure, self-realization, freedom. The process of living established by desire. A desire that is not dark or confusing but luminous and clear”. As with the original release, the album will be double black-color vinyl with a fold-out gatefold album cover. Songs like “Dinamita”, “7 Días Juntos”, “Recompensarte” and “Los Jardines De Marzo” make it clear just how great this album is.

This will be followed by “Premeditación, Nocturnidad y Alevosía”, which will be released for the first time all together on vinyl, as the last release in this format was limited to just three Maxi-Singles of four songs each, which later comprised the final CD. It is a major work of art – complex, multi-faceted, dark. The perfect crime, an endless conspiracy. Once again, the fold-out cover does justice to that wonder that reveals itself little by little, made by Ana herself, and on green, double vinyl. “Poderes Extraños”, “Muero De Amor”, “Vueltas”, “Alta Tensión” and “Disimulando” are marvelous songs that have been living in a special corner of our minds for many years.

“Ceremonia”, the album that let the electronica loose, that overflows with devotion to NEW ORDER, the album where everything changed forever, will be released in the same exact format as the original vinyl, with a different cover for the vinyl and for the CD, each made by Ana as the connecting axis, and with songs like “A Veces Ni Eso”, “Arenas Movedizas” and “Carnaval”, which are now included in LA BIEN QUERIDA’s greatest hits. The album will be white vinyl again.

“Fiesta” will also be the same as the original release, with a black vinyl, reminding us of that celebration, and making us think of how far we have come. This is the album that brought her initial success to its peak, and that definitively opened the world up to her, with its great songs like “Hoy”, “Queridos Tamarindos”, “Sentido Común” and “Noviembre”.

And “Romancero” is where it all started. The one that introduced us to her talent, her ability to write unforgettable lyrics that forever touched our hearts. “De Momento Abril”, “Corpus Christi”, “9.6”, “Bendita”, “Golpe De Estado”, “A.D.N.”... 12 incredible songs on an album that is without a doubt one of the great Spanish pop classics of all times. A timeless album that originally, in 2009, was only released as a CD, and was re-released in 2014 as an LP, but the 500 copies made were all gone in seconds. This new release will be on transparent vinyl.

But it’s not over yet; to close this collection of re-releases, we are putting out a very special, magenta-colored 7” Single with her most recent releases: “Un Gatito”, her marvelous collaboration with the producer ALIZZZ (who has worked with Rosalía, C. TANGANA, Amaia, Andrés Calamaro and Jorge Drexler to name just a few), and her version of “Soy Rebelde” by Jeanette, which has recently been used in the ad campaign for “La Prohibida” cider.

2021 is going to be a very important year for LA BIEN QUERIDA and their songs are once again going to light up our darkest days. And while Ana finishes giving shape to her new album, which she is already hard at work on, all of these reissues will make the wait that much sweeter.

PROMOTIONAL TEXT

“Romancero” was a national phenomenon and a great discovery outside of our borders. After the excitement her demo stirred up, that debut album not only met but even surpassed all of our expectations.  It was “album of the year” for MondoSonoro and RockDeLux (the latter placed “Romancero” among the best national albums of the decade); it also received effusive reviews all over the media, both in specialized and general news sources; and it made the cover of different publications, including some really important ones, like EP3 and MondoSonoro. Because we could hope for nothing less, the tour covered the entire Spanish map, including the big festivals (Primavera Sound, Contempopranea, FIB, South Pop, Twoday Festival...) and special events like Día de la Música (Day of Music).  It was the first release on Elefant Mexico, and she was invited to open for Julieta Venegas there, in two of the most important theaters in the country (El Teatro Metropolitan in Mexico City and the Auditorio Luis Elizondo in Monterrey), where she was incredibly well received by the thousands of people who had the opportunity to see her.  The album was released in the States by National Records, where it once again received enthusiastic reviews in many different media, all of which culminated in a concert at the prestigious Latin Alternative Music Conference in New York.

Last year, Ana collaborated on two songs on LOS PLANETA’s most recent album, “Una ópera egipcia”. The duet “No sé como te atreves” was chosen to be the album’s first single and the other collaboration, “La veleta”, she sang alone, which is something practically unheard of in the Granada band’s career.  She was a finalist in the Premios de la Musica Independiente (Independent Music Awards) in four different categories, and won the prize for “Album of the Year” and “Breakthrough Artist”.  But above all, this phenomenon meant the gift of a great album that raised up an incredible songwriter who is full of creativity, personality and blessed with a special sensibility.

Because of all of this, it’s easy to understand the nervousness and the expectation faced with the arrival of a new release.  And the title of the album couldn’t be more right-on: every music-lover, and everyone who isn’t such a music-lover, will enjoy the second album from LA BIEN QUERIDA like a real “Fiesta” (Party): it’s a gift for those who need a bit of a melodic and rhythmic push every day, a celebration for everyone who feels that music is a vital motor, something that is always there, even it sometimes seems like it isn’t.  And we can’t forget to blame Ana, with that voice we want to keep close to us, whispering in our ear… ironic and emotive, fun and acerbic, relaxed and forceful… Her lyrics give us, once again, lines that irremediably break our hearts: She sings on “Hoy”, “Hay cosas que hubiera preferido no saber / Y todo lo que sabes que no quiero comprender / pero hoy al volverte a ver, / decidí empezar a quererte otra vez” (There are things I wish I didn’t know / And all the things you know I don’t want to understand / but today I’m going to see you again, / I decided to start to love you again), while on “Sentido Común” she tells us, “Me estás robando horas de sueño, / me estoy mintiendo y me lo creo, / pero como te estoy queriendo / no tiene memoria ni tiene tiempo” (You are stealing my sleep, / I am lying to myself and I believe it, / but the way I love you / has no memory and no time).

Once again with the invaluable help of David Rodríguez (BEEF, LA ESTRELLA DE DAVID), in charge of the arrangements and production, Ana Fernández-Villaverde is putting out an adventurous album, full of varied influences, that uses any means within its reach to excite listeners, compiling styles and influences to create that masterpiece sung in Spanish that brings together everything that music is today in this language: here we have a touch of flamenco, rumba and rancheras, Arabic accents and that electronic touch.  But behind it is always that perfectly perfect pop, the house specialty, Ana’s ability to impose her personality above any stylistic flourishes, her unforgettable melodies that inhabit our memories like thick wool hats from our childhood and those stories that populate her lyrics and are unbreakable promises of universal love.

“Fiesta” is definitively that pop-defining album that the national scene needed, diverse, wide-open, demanding, accessible and complex, full of emotions of every color.  It’s huge – end of sentence.  It is a celebration nobody with self-worth will miss, and which people like Jaime Pantaleón (12TWELVE), Mohamed Soulimane, Rafael Núñez “El Niño de Ópera” and the very Banda de Música Mestre Montserrat, among others, have already signed up for, by collaborating.  Are you coming?  These are the twelve pieces that can’t be left out of your upcoming parties:

1“Noviembre”: We start things off with clapping and the box drum, the synthesizer comes in little by little and an Arabic cry sets the boats sailing and starts the blood pumping.  What better way of creating the feeling of intense intimacy than with the strongest contrasts: “El frio y el calor se están tocando / cogidos de la mano paseando” (Hot and cold are touching / walking around holding hands). Setting a sepia tone that we’ll never forget.  Two minutes and we are already beginning to melt.

2 “Hoy”: The advance track from the disc is born of Mohamed Soulimane’s Arabic violins, which reaffirm the feeling of a passionate woman, with that interlude that will stay indelibly branded in the mind of any mortal: 

“¿Qué será la muerte? / me preguntaste un día / y no te supe contestar. / Si la muerte es mirar y no verte, / que la muerte es mirar y no verte”.(What will death be? / you asked me one day / and I didn’t know how to answer. / If death is looking and not seeing you / that death is looking and not seeing you). Devastating.

3 “Queridos Tamarindos”: She is the only one capable of mixing rumba and the most delicious pop this way, to make one of the pop choruses of the year: “Suplícame, que me está gustando / Te enseñaré como lo hice yo / Insísteme todo lo que sepas / Y dame todo el tiempo la razón” (Beg me, I like it / I’ll show you how I did it / Insist as much as you can / And tell me I’m right all the time).

4 “Sentido Común”: And since we can’t escape our own feelings, with that air of northern Argentinean folklore and scent of rumba: melancholic, resigned, but deeply exciting.

5 “Piensa Como Yo”: That beginning that is almost sampledelic, full of groove, with that saxophone pushing, it gives way to a song that mixes irony, humor, sadness and bitterness with incredible skill: or because you fall in love with the wrong person.

6 “Cuando El Amor Se Olvida”: Arabic base slowly gives way to clapping, that flamenco touch returns for one of the most chilling confessions of the whole disc.  A sad vision of love begins, understood as altruism, disinterest, openly and inevitably facing suffering and deception, to end up like this: “ Sé lo que me vas a preguntar ahora... / Y no lo sé”  (I know what you’re going to ask me now… / And I don’t know). Tears.

7 “La Muralla China”: One of the most purely pop songs on the album, catchy, with that melody that sets the pace for a simple line that hides a vital philosophy: “Y no voy a dejar que el tiempo se me escape / de todos mis fracasos aprendí / y  aunque te extrañe voy a intentarlo una vez más.” (And I’m not going to let time get away from me / I learned from all my mistakes / and even though I miss you I’m going to try it one more time)  Isn’t it said that humans are the only animals that trip over the same stone twice?  Only?

8 “Monte De Piedad”: A solemn march, an Easter week procession cloaked by Banda de Música Mestra Montserrat, is the chosen clothing for this song, which was included on the first demo, and which is another of the greatest tracks on the album.  It describes one of the great idiosyncrasies of relationships, and how difficult it is to rationalize anything related to her: “Empedrado está el infierno de buenas intenciones, / muchas puertas, muchas vueltas, vuelvo a tropezar.” (Hell is paved with good intentions / so many doors, so many turns, I stumble again).

9 “En El Hemisferio Austral”: The era of David in BEEF can be seen here more clearly than ever, with those broken guitars in the background, and that way of singing that Ana has to narrate the explosion of a spark.

10 “Me Quedo Por Aquí”: Another one of the greatest hits on the album, with a devastating chorus, making it absolutely clear that our girl has an overwhelmingly captivating and independent personality: “Digo lo que me viene en gana, / hago lo que me da la gana, / se van cayendo las manzanas de las ramas, / tengo los ases, los reyes y las damas, / y hago lo que me da la gana” (I say whatever I feel like / I do whatever I want, / the apples are falling from the trees / I’ve got the aces, the kings and the queens / and I do whatever I want).

11 “Monumentos En La Luna”: Sadness fills the space, because he has gone and he’s not coming back, and the exact moment you realize it is supremely bitter: “lo que ya pasó se que no volverá, / y probablemente tú tampoco, / quisiera decirte que me da igual, / pero no, pero no que no es verdad” (what has already happened I know won’t come back / and probably neither will you / I wanted to tell you that it doesn’t matter / but no, it’s not true).

12 “Lunes De Pascua”: Life is full of contradictions, and what better than a ranchera with a waltz rhythm to declare this.  We are fooling ourselves: “He visto salir el sol, / de sitios imposibles, / así que cuando te vas / ya nunca me pongo triste” (I’ve seen the sun rise / from the most improbable places / which is why when you go / I never get sad), but then we resign ourselves: “Poco o nada me han enseñado los años / Prometo, prometo, prometo, prometo, prometo, prometo, prometo” (The years have taught me little to nothing / I promise, I promise, I promise, I promise, I promise, I promise, I promise).