REVIEW: Alberto Montero - Puerto Príncipe

Alberto Montero has been working with the Spanish band Shake and on his new solo album (with help from Román Gil, Xavi Muñoz and Marcos Junquera)  is playing some soulful, picturesque, and in places psychedelic folk rock. This is another in a long line of impressive talents on the Barcelona-based label BCore Disc. The new album Puerto Príncipe is a true gem - his voice is terrific, and the arrangements on these songs are impeccable. Over the course of the album's 13 songs, there are acoustic and electric guitars, piano, strings and even some sort of muted horn sections - all in service of Montero's artistic soundscapes. Each song is a work of art in and of itself, yet the album is of a piece and rewards repeated, extended plays.

Here's the title track, a beautiful, multi-hued song that runs a little over six minutes, and contains touches of British folk rock like Donovan and flawless pop a la Brian Wilson.



Check out the way his falsetto vocal and the guitar lines interweave with a simply played piano backing on "Hoy Ayer":



Here's "El Juego Del Olvido" - another pretty vocal with mostly acoustic backing, but some nice reverb on the electric guitars, too:



Every song on here is subtle, evocative and easy to listen to. The perceived resemblance to classic California folk rock might be fitting... Valencia, Spain's on a beautiful coastline, too. Amazingly, this record is available for "name your price" at Bandcamp - just click through the songs above to get to the site.