EN EL CEMENTERIO PELIGROSO,
LIDIA DAMUNT
Subterfuge, Spain ***1/2
Rating: 71
By Carlos Reyes
Lidia Damunt caves folk with accentuated strings like almost no other individual from our region; through a concise skill she forces her voice into awe-inspiring screams to catch up to her guitar’s rapid speed as if it was following a horse through the woods. En El Cementerio Peligroso sounds just like Damunt’s first record En la Isla de las Bufandas, just with different topics, but not enough proximity among its pieces to formulate a concept or a sharp theme. What makes the album particular is Damunt’s personality breaking through the music and unveiling herself; sometimes in direct down-to-earth songs like “Perdoname” and even more interesting is to see figurative language make an appearance through fantasy and glossy stories. The big standout among these imaginative pieces is “Su Nombre Es Chaan”, a rapid half pop half trova piece about her encounter with a character that feels too lonely in this world, through the description, leaves the impression of being some kind of inspiring and kind witch. “El Hundimiento del Sirio” is the other track that fully gets its concept; there are plenty of details to make the story of a sinking boat traveling to the Americas believable. Despite its virtues, songs like “En el fondo del mar” and “Eco Eco” fall short to the artist’s premise, these are songs that work great individually but once put together experience a drought of notion. The incredibly fun and honest “Guinglain” arrives at an awkward moment, it's crude and with lines like "a las damas enamora con su seriedad", it's an engaging story of an emblematic knight. It is the moment to disclose full confidence as she riffs the strings at full potency, a triumph for the story-teller and the one song in the album that places the artwork’s armor and architectural beauty as levelheaded.