Natalia Lafourcade - De Todas Las Flores [2LP Clear Holland Import]

Natalia Lafourcade described De Todas Las Flores as a musical diary, and the 2022 album feels exactly that intimate, arriving here as a limited clear 2LP on 180-gram vinyl.

It was her first set of entirely original songs in seven years, following Hasta la Raíz, after a stretch spent reinterpreting Latin American classics on the Musas albums. Written through heartbreak, loss and grief, and inspired by the garden at her home in Xalapa, Veracruz, the songs treat flowers as a symbol of what withers and what keeps blooming. Producer Adán Jodorowsky recorded everything on analog tape at a studio in Texas near El Paso, bringing in guitarist Marc Ribot and bassist Sebastian Steinberg, with Emilio Dorantes on piano.

The title track and "Mi Manera De Querer" were shared ahead of the album and set its unhurried, tender tone. "Muerte" faces the record's themes head-on, and the closing "Que Te Vaya Bonito Nicolás" ends things on a gentle farewell. Throughout, the arrangements drift between jazz, folk, bolero, bossa nova and cumbia without ever feeling crowded.

The album went on to win a Grammy and Latin Grammy recognition, yet it never sounds made for anything but the songs themselves.

Cut to tape and pressed on clear vinyl, it is a natural fit for slow evenings and careful listening.