Arthur Yoria, Suerte Mijo / Something Must Be Wrong

As anybody who’s read this little e-zine for a little while probably knows, I’ve been a fan of H-town singer-songwriter Arthur Yoria for a few years now. And upon receiving his latest two releases, a pair of EPs entitled Suerte Mijo and Something Must Be Wrong, I’m reminded why. I swear, every single time he comes up to the plate, this guy bats it out of the park. It’s amazing.

Not that either of these discs is exactly a “typical” Arthur Yoria release, mind you. The first of the two, Suerte Mijo, is actually doubly odd, being A) sung all in Spanish and B) an iTunes-only release (a first for Yoria). I’m guessing the latter has something to do with the former, but I’ll get to that later. Right now I should note that it turns out to be a heck of a lot more difficult to review something when it’s in a language I don’t understand. It’s kind of a new experience for me — I could’ve sworn I’d had to try something like this before, but right now I can’t figure out when that might’ve been, and the experience feels pretty alien. So yes, here I am, listening to an album’s worth of music in Spanish, a language I only “know” inasmuch as I can ask where the bathroom is and kind of comprehend the answer I get. When it comes to the five tracks on Suerte Mijo, Yoria could be singing about love, loss, and pain, or he could be singing about the weather; I really have no idea.

So, with that in mind, all I’m left with is the music. And what music it is — Yoria has the ability to effortlessly turn out these gorgeously-textured, foot-tapping pop-rock masterpieces that pull in the best elements of the guitar-pop genre over the past two decades or so and meld them all together into a cohesive whole. Top it off with that smoky voice of his, capable of jumping from sultry whisper to heartbroken cry at the drop of a hat, and it’s nearly flawless music in any language. Sadly, that’s about all I can say about it. The music’s great, yes, but without the added depth of the lyrics (or, heck, even the song titles — I know a few of the words in there, like “baño” and “amor”, but that’s about it), I’m finding that I can’t get into Suerte Mijo in any kind of meaningful way.

Which is okay, really, because I don’t think I’m really the intended audience; this feels more like an experiment of sorts, a guarded, not-too-serious stab at crossing over into the Spanish-language market without expending too much effort on actually marketing the disc to Spanish-language radio, TV, or whatever — hence the iTunes-only distribution. I suspect that Yoria views Mijo as just a fun “whatever happens, happens” one-off, with him enjoying writing and recording the songs but not having much hope of success riding on the release.

And hey, more power to him; I’ve been known to gripe about how the “opening up” of the music world to people who can self-record, self-release, self-promote, and self-distribute their music has killed any kind of filter separating the good stuff from the not-worth-the-plastic-of-a-CD-R crap, but on the other side of the coin, it’s great that we live in an age when a guy as talented as Yoria can just throw out something like this without the backing of a major label. Again, though, it’s the lack of comprehension of the lyrics that kills me. While I like Suerte Mijo, I’m not real likely to be listening to it much (at least, not until I take a class or two in Spanish, which is something I’ve been meaning to do). There’s only so far the music gets me without being able to delve into the meaning behind it.

On the positive side, the meaning of the lyrics is what Yoria’s “other” EP, Something Must Be Wrong, is all about; it’s practically packed with the stuff. Take the title track — with a beautiful, nearly cheering chorus of “This can’t be this easy,” he seems awed and surprised by how simple it is to just step back and take life as it comes, to be in tune with the world and not get freaked out by every little thing. Everything’s running so smoothly, in fact, that the ease of it has got him worried (guy can’t win for losing, can he?). To my ears, at least, this song is about Yoria trying to discover his “center,” figuring out how to balance the different parts of his life without going over the cliff. The feeling continues into “Only Me,” which is the yearning, sweet-as-honey sound of Yoria rediscovering himself — he looks around at all the chaos and realized that the person he really needs to be paying attention to is, well, him.

Then there’s “Goodbye Marisa,” which strikes out into unknown territory (for Yoria, that is) by incorporating odd little gospel touches and handclaps in the middle, some bluesy guitars, and an almost roadhouse feel throughout. It’s nothing like any of the songs I’ve ever heard from the guy before, although it’s recognizably him. After the first two tracks on the EP, “Goodbye Marisa” comes off as kind of a signal that things are headed in a new direction.

Okay, so maybe I’m reading a bit into this and interpreting what are actually fairly innocent little pop songs as windows into the deep, dark portions of Yoria’s subconscious; that’s definitely possible, I’ll admit it. Maybe it’s because I know what all Yoria went through before and during the making of his last full album, I’ll Be Here Awake, that this EP sounds kind of like it’s the sound of him getting back on his feet and being comfortable again with his life and his music. Awake was kind of like the chronicle of his crash into illness and depression, and the urgency and edginess of the music reflected that, but now that he’s made it back, Something Must Be Wrong is the celebration of how good it feels to really live again. The songs here are less edgy, less frantic, and less melancholy than a lot of the stuff on Awake; they’re more introspective, on the whole, more uplifting and positive. It’s like he’s saying, “okay, I’m doing better now,” and is warming up for his next bit of full-length brilliance. After listening to both of these EPs, I can hardly wait to hear it.