Review of “Manufacturas del Club de la Gente Sola”, third album by Arde Bogotá

Loneliness, the feeling of isolation, separation and emotional emptiness in the world hyperconnected by multi-screens and social networks as a false sensation of connection. A silent and addictive poison that, without us realizing it, spreads and annihilates at its roots the real human bond, active listening and the deep intimacy of face-to-face, skin-to-skin interactions. All aggravated by the devilish, interested and soulless rhythm of current life that is penetrating and eroding the left side of our chest, and, almost without us realizing it, we are only left with an empty space in which the echoes of true heartbeats and feelings are fading. Bogotá burns They reappear with their third album, “Manufactures of the Lonely People’s Club”their best set of songs to date, and they offer us what we need as people and society more than ever: a poetic dystopian story that hurts and heals, that embraces and merges with reality; an instruction manual to make that heart that we lost and no longer wants to feel, to regain sensitivity and emotion in this world of loneliness in which we find ourselves.

All seasoned with a powerful, sharp and genuine sound, darker, rockier and more direct than in their previous works, close to the authenticity and instant combustion that the band achieves on stage. And part of the blame for that sound cohesion lies in having recorded with all the musicians in the same room, standing in a circle and looking into each other’s eyes, with Joe Chiccarelli (The White Stripes, The Strokes, Beck or The Killers) at the controls of the production at EastWest Studios in Los Angeles.

Thus, between the lost love and all its scratches, where sadness, painful melancholy and desire throb, this conceptual journey begins in eleven songs that, with a broken chest, try to make that vital artifact that we are missing… But this time it will be made of metal, so that it does not feel, an artificial armor “to live safely when they want us badly”as Antonio García sings in the energetic and vibrant opening, “Instructions”a heart of “iron that does not suffer from pride or love” hammered by him “Mr. Blacksmith” in a forge of red-hot guitars.

In the second blink they give us the first surprise of the album, palms with the aroma of flamenco and gospel opening the seas and exploring the value that is lost when we close ourselves in, followed by “Judas”a rhythmic pop-rock roller coaster, brimming with epic and pasodoble-flavored winds that end up conquering us. The thing is serious, the tracks advance and dialogue in a fluid and organic way, like a total work with different stages in which, not only do we not see ups and downs, but the people of Cartagena do not stop flying over the heights and touching the excellence of the genre (music and lyrics) with passion, class in abundance and their own stamp. And almost at the equator, “Antifesta” like a projectile of electronic rhythms fallen from the sky that bursts into a pop-rock anthem of heartbreak, shaking the foundations of the album (the same effect is felt in packed halls and stadiums), marking the fall and overcoming of the breakup with an ironic celebration of grief and sadness. We lower the revolutions, but not the intensity and heartbreaking beauty with “Olive trees”, half-time twilight (in the sister soundscape with “Bigger Splash”a brilliant preview that they presented this summer at festivals) that, with a lyricism and poetics within the reach of few bands, caresses us and hits us like a gust of hopeful air that doesn’t let us touch the ground.

In the final stretch, the engine in our chest boils, that heart of metal that does not feel, based on pure stoner, flaming riffs and Stony choruses with falsettos flavored with sulfur and sympathy for the devil; to later recover a more human pulse in the slow-burning pop-funk of those contradictory solitudes that dance together in the “Lonely People’s Club” caressing the epicenter of the sentimental wound of the album and approaching the healing outcome, prior to the penultimate song of disenchantment in the beautiful acoustic nudity of a “Handle” that, suffering, is already a ray of sunshine between the cracks of manufactured beats.

The perfect closing and closing is with another masterpiece from an album that goes headlong to the best of the year, “Shake”, making, based on guitars that climb like vines of light and explode like fireworks, with a week-old marching drum in the background and spiritual atmospheres that fuse gospel and flamenco (choirs included), the barren lands of feelings where we began the journey vibrate, those on which factories of artificial hearts were built to fill the void we had in our chest… And a new spring arrives that shakes and awakens the heart, the real one, the one of flesh and flowers, the that we thought we had lost forever. “Manufactures of the Lonely People’s Club”music that makes your skin crawl and connects us again. “That thing that bothers you in there / is simply a heart. / That doesn’t hurt, doesn’t hurt, shakes, / is simply a heart.”