“Dibujos De Mi Alma” is the lead single from the new, and seventh, Y La Bamba album Lucha. The title translates into English as “Drawings of My Soul” and with the usual inventive blend of styles it expresses a complex emotional state. Luz Elena Mendoza Ramos says the “song was written for a romantic partner right before the shutdown in 2020” and that it is “a song of longing for this person but at the same time trying to detach myself from the unhealthy parts of connection.” Which is a perfect sentiment for that confusing time that also forced many of us into a period of isolation and reaching an unusual clarity of priorities and boundaries. For the song Ramos and the band employ a typically shifting and layered yet spare polyrhythm in the percussion, bass and the orchestrated pacing of sounds. Her vocals sound like a reaching into the delicate places of the psyche for a conversation with self that teases out the strands of emotion to take in the honest resonances to glean a true gauge of feeling. The insights issue from the psychedelic tinge of guitar and the strength of singing Ramos brings to bear in the last half of the song as it fades into an elevated tone. It’s a song that is gentle in the beginning and has an effect like a psychological cleansing by the end with the sifting out of un-useful uncertainty and ambiguity in favor of a healing knowing of where one’s hear should be going. Listen to “Dibujos De Mi Alma” on YouTube and pre-order Lucha on the Tender Loving Empire website linked below.
Pre-Order Lucha by Ya La Bamba on Tender Loving Empire here.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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