¡Spangled!

"Even if you neglected to listen to a single lyric, ¡Spangled! still comes off as a powerful political statement. Performed by 37-year old Guatemala City singer-songwriter Gaby Moreno, and 76-year old Mississippi composer Van Dyke Parks, the ten-track LP shows the duo recreating music from the Americas, melding together disparate but similar genres while showcasing Latin songwriters ... Even when they take on English songs by Ry Cooder ("Across the Borderline") and Cilla Black ("I'll Take a Tango"), Gaby Moreno and Van Dyke Parks manage to make ¡Spangled! sound less like a musically themed project and more like a labour of love".

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"Parks has teamed with an ideal collaborator, the Guatemalan-born vocalist Gaby Moreno, who can sing with thoughtful brio in both Spanish and English while tackling a broad range of styles. Together they've crafted an impressive affair comprised of songs from North, South, and Central America that celebrate the possibilities of the Americas, the cultural roadblocks on all sides of the border, and the way all parties involved see one another ... Moreno can communicate grace, joy, sorrow, and apprehension with the skill of a gifted actress, and her voice is a marvel, smooth and rich but also nimble and able to work with anything it's presented. Parks' orchestrations match Moreno for expressive power, and if he makes these selections sound like the soundtrack to some big-budget movie steeped in Latin culture, the IMAX-scale grandeur generates all the color and drama anyone could ask for ... Moreno never lets the listener forget there's a very real and beating heart in every one of these songs. ¡Spangled! is a splendid merger of two outstanding talents who complement one another better than anyone might expect".

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"Oddly, for a tribute to music of the Americas, this project has its origins in Denmark, where in 2010 arranger Van Dyke Parks performed at the Roskilde Festival. His idea was to present songs that were Pan-American, utilizing the skills of singer Gaby Moreno, as well as an orchestra. ¡Spangled! is the studio distillation of that concept ... Occasionally, as on Dori Caymmi's "O, Cantador," the orchestration is held in check, so the expressive beauty of Moreno's voice can shine. Elsewhere, though, the focus seems less on the power of the songs than on the cleverness of the arrangements".