Origen

Origen marks a change in style for the Spanish duo Fuel Fandango. Nita (Cristina Manjón) is a singer from Córdoba who joined forces with guitarist, DJ and producer Alejandro Acosta over ten years ago. They started off with a powerful rock sound, combining Nita's Andalusian style and characterful voice over Acosta's power chords. The result was original and had the freshness of the best indie bands. After their last album, Aurora, they took a break and are now back with a new sound, combining some overtly flamenco touches with a more electro-pop feel, perhaps looking for the space opened up by the recent success of Rosalía.

While the electronics provide a wider sound palette, the production is heavy-handed. At the same time Nita's voice has been tamed to sound like most of the other flamenco-pop singers out there. Occasionally, some stylish songwriting makes itself felt through the weight of production, providing attractive moments such as in ‘Silencio’. But overall this is probably too much of a straight pop release for most Songlines readers.