Artist: Principe Valiente
Title: Barricades
Genre: Alt Rock / Dream Rock
Release Date: 1st April 2022
Label: Metropolis Records
Album Review
Tempting as it must be to get lost in a swirly ethereal world of your own making, the danger with PRINCIPE VALIENTE has always been to keep on producing the same album endlessly, such is the distinctive appeal of their sound. Previous album ‘Oceans’ came close to this, locked-in as it were, still fabulous but starting to feel choked by its own beauty and despair. New album ‘Barricades’ has burst the bubble nicely, or at least burst a small bubble within a much larger one. It’s still essentially PRINCIPE VALIENTE, but with an expanded and organic feel that has arrived just when it should.
As if to prove this point, the two lead singles from ‘Barricades’ illustrate an absolute conclusion of the old sound on ‘Porcelain’, and a bold and alternative route on ‘I Am You’. The former’s gorgeous slow-motion shimmer in stark contrast to the latter’s harsh clatter and edgy, darkly paranoid nervousness. The title track sits somewhere between the two, having all the grandeur and swell you would expect, but with a less angsty feel, pockets of optimism amid the introspection. ‘So Much More’ is an excellent, beefy, fired-up post-punk gallop, ‘When We Can’t Let Go’ revolving around several songs at once, rather gloriously it has to be said - and there’s a stupidly big chorus poncing about on ‘Never Change’.
Then we’re off to pastures new with the ecstatic waltz of ‘The Beating Of Your Heart’ - someone has fallen in love, one suspects, the huge concluding swoon all a bit too much. In a good way. It’s like TINDERSTICKS as a stadium band from the eighties. Marvellous. ‘The Impossibles’ also veers off into less familiar places, both the melody and vocal exploring just where the band could go next. And final song ‘This Buried Love’ stacks itself up with layers that come and go, an oddly muted effect that feels tense and teasing, leaving you thoughtfully unsure.
This is a clever album, well-constructed and impeccably thought through. Avoiding repetition yet wisely not vastly changing the overall vision, PRINCIPE VALIENTE have ensured a future for themselves with ‘Barricades’, and produced a set of post-plague songs that nod to their genesis, but look boldly to what’s next.
Tracklist
01. Barricades
02. So Much More
03. Porcelain
04. I Am You
05. Tears In Different Colours
06. When We Can’t Let Go
07. Never Change
08. The Beating Of Your Heart
09. The Impossibles
10. This Buried Love
Line-up
Fernando Honorato
Jimmy Ottosson
Rebecka Johansson
Joakim Janthe
Website
https://principevaliente.com / https://www.facebook.com/principesweden
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10
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