September 23, 2019 The Nation. 37
pro-independence thinkers from previous
generations. Lyrics like the ones in “Con-
tra Todo,” with their image-driven natural
descriptions and calls to fight back, seem
to descend from the literary styles of rev-
olutionaries like Juan Antonio Corretjer,
whose epic poems were integral to the
island’s socially conscious and political-
ly free-thinking neocriollismo movement.
Cabra’s writerly approach isn’t as boister-
ous or as outwardly provocative as the work
that Calle 13 became known for, but it’s not
any less stirring.
If there’s one place the new album fal-
ters, it’s in its diversity of sound. Cabra’s
debut established her nostalgic approach
to making music, and hearing her revisit
boogaloo and bolero can feel repetitive
the second time around. Songs like “In-
vencible” and “Sin Masticar” use colors
we’ve seen her paint with before—they’re
reminiscent of “Te Quiero con Bugalú” on
the first album—and they keep the record
from making any bold leaps into contem-
porary pop sounds. Almadura includes a
major collaboration with the legendary
salsa pianist Eddie Palmieri, but despite the
impressive musicality of their partnership,
it’s a slice of the album that only proves
how much Cabra chases the past more than
she looks forward.
Almadura could have done more to link
tradition to the present by blending the
roots-oriented sounds that Cabra loves
with the radical pop experiments explod-
ing across all genres of Spanish-language
music. The producer Trooko has sprin-
kled electronic beats onto the project, but
they’re often eclipsed by heavy classical
arrangements. A breakthrough comes on
“Tu Rumba,” a song built on a slowed-
down bomba rhythm. Toward the end, a
burst of synths begins to pulse through the
melody, like a transmission from another
planet. The production introduces a flash
of modernity that could have taken the
project further and made it as innovative
as it is emotional. A sense of the current
moment seems especially lacking, given the
timeliness of the thematic content.
Still, Almadura is a proud and sturdy
record of resistance, serving as the wind-
up before Cabra unleashed her fury on the
global stage amid Puerto Rico’s historic
political uprising. Cabra throws herself into
the cycle of trauma and healing and in the
process reaches profound new depths as
both an artist and a witness of history. The
album becomes not only a mirror of Puerto
Rico’s courage and resilience but a testa-
ment to Cabra’s own power as well. Q
Everyone Is Acting as if We’re Not Temporary,
And I Am Falling Apart in the Privacy of My Own Home
When he said, Sometimes we learn the most
from losing, I think how often I’ve been bamboozled
by life, how I’ve dropped a quarter in a slot machine
and instead of cherries got coffins. Got death?
Yeah, I’ve seen the grim reaper wander
my neighborhood in a Chanel suit and a diamond
studded scythe because we all want to be overdressed
for the afterlife, we all want to believe
there is a special place for us. But when I watched
the body of my nana fade into thinness I thought
please let me leave early—in a plane crash, car accident,
a lightning bolt, don’t let me hold on so long
I am a body longing for someone to text it
—hey babe, I’m kind of into you. To say, I miss you
even though I don’t visit. Death and we butt dial
the wrong person. Death on a good drunk
of port. Once I remember my dad saying,
You are worth more than you think, as I always sold myself
off at a discount and I wish I didn’t, I wish I didn’t
say how much I hurt on social media
but sometimes I just want to believe I’m not alone
like how we’re all doing cartwheels on life’s grass
until someone lands in a sinkhole, until one of us
decides it’s late and the streetlights
are telling us it’s time to return back home.
KELLI RUSSELL AGODON