Mus, La Vida

reviewed by dave heaton

The Spanish group Mus can create a dreamy atmosphere better than just anyone – a stuck-in-mid-air, lullaby tone, with Monica Vaxas' gorgeous, haunting voice.

La Vida opens with a perfect example: "Per Tierres Baxes," her voice especially smooth and low, almost a whisper, to slowly played guitar, getting more like a lullaby and a heavenly, slow-dance ballad as it proceeds. But it takes a warped turn right at the end, gliding into something different…"Cantares de Ciegu," a '60s-feeleing folk-rock song with flute, very Belle & Sebastian and their forbearers: lush, melancholy, but also up. And that up tone is accented with by a thick electric guitar, while the lighter flute/music box sounds remain.

Though Mus' music has never been one-dimensional (listen to their Bliss-Out LP Aida and then the solitary, minimalist ballads on El Naval, for example), the sound here is wide-ranging, and that's a treat. There's more of a '60s, light-psychedelia vibe (think both the Velvet Underground's first and third LPs, and the Left Banke), and slightly more of a rock edge in moments. As on their gorgeous last album Divina Lluz, but perhaps even more so, they've become pros at layering textures within their songs. There's some especially brittle, delicate moments ("Dulce Amor", "Les Patinadores"), so arresting that they hold you, stuck in time. And all the while, Mus' essential vision remains, their own uniquely beautiful, sad but hopeful, style.

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