Jarabe de Palo - La Flaca [Spain Import]

Spain's great slow-burn success story, Jarabe de Palo's La Flaca arrives as an import pressing from the band's home country, the 1996 debut that made Pau Donés a household name.

Recorded in Barcelona with producer Joe Dworniak, the album barely registered at first, selling modestly in its opening months. Then the title track turned up in a television advert and everything changed. La Flaca climbed to number one in Spain, went multi-platinum there and in Italy, and carried the band's easygoing Latin rock across Europe and the Americas.

Its charm lies in how relaxed it sounds. "La Flaca" sways on a loose, sun-warmed groove, Donés singing of desire with a rough, smoky warmth, while "Grita" pushes harder and louder, living up to its title. "Quiero Ser Poeta" opens the record with wit and swagger, and "Quítame la Vida" shows the more vulnerable side of his songwriting. An acoustic version of the title track rounds things off with a gentle, unplugged sway.

Donés died in 2020, and the songs here have only grown more beloved since. This import brings the record back to where it started, a rough-edged and big-hearted debut that still sounds like a long summer evening in Barcelona, with the windows open and somebody's guitar playing down the street.