Earlier this month, we shared the debut EP—Room for One More?—from Boston-based garage rock quartet Olas De Surya in these columns, an excellent preview of their first full-length effort—LINDA—now online. Marco Ferral Hernandez (vocals, guitar), Juan Pablo Jimenez Garcia (guitar), Nathalie Vieux-Gresham (bass), and Christopher Zy Li (drums) deliver nine Strokesian songs (including the three we know from the aforementioned EP), some in English and some in Spanish, all energetic and engaging, although created in a period that was anything but perfect.
When asked, frontman Marco explains where the album title comes from: “The reality is that since we started recording this back in March, the state of this country has changed so much. And it feels like a car with no breaks. This makes us feel uncertain about travel, uncertain about time. Uncertain about uncertainty even. Fast forward to late July, I am back home still thinking about what’s going to happen to us, but also waiting to hear some of our mixes. To stop thinking about life for a bit, I thought I would put on a movie. I’ve heard a lot about Linda Linda Linda, being someone that has always wanted to start a band. (…) As I am watching it, I couldn’t help but feel all of the excitement again. (…) The band went to see it, and they felt similarly. To me, LINDA, as the title of this first album, felt appropriate not only because of everything I have described, but also as a reminder of the prettiness—pretty being the translation of linda from Spanish—in whatever amount of ugly there is.”
It’s a fitting backstory to a record that weaves a hazy narrative of love, loss, and self-reckoning told through shifting mornings, blurred weekends, and bilingual reflections. It captures the emotional aftermath of relationships—drifting between regret, nostalgia, and quiet acceptance (from Look Back: ‘I knew how it’d end // I still asked you to stay’)—while its raw and lo-fi sound mirrors the confusion and beauty of moving on.
LINDA, produced by David Minehan, is out now digitally (self-released). Click here for the trailer of the aforementioned, inspiring film Linda Linda Linda on YouTube, or here for the review from The New York Times.
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