Salón, Lágrimas y Deseo

Lila Downs is a Latin American superstar. On her ninth album she fronts an orchestra of 20 musicians from as many countries, accompanied by Grammy-winning guests including Clara Morrison, Diego El Cigala and Andrés Calamaro. Yet Downs seems more firmly rooted than ever in the vernacular sound of her beloved Mexico. Political crises powered 2015's Balas y Chocolate. Salón is a retreat into the night to shed private lágrimas (tears) of romantic yearning.

A sultry version of the melancholy ranchera ‘Urge’ opens the 16-track set. Agustín Lara's bolero ‘Palabras de Mujer’ follows, with Downs' vocals at their most mellifluous. ‘Peligrosa’ is a slow, swaying, self-penned ballad with a hint of Chavela Vargas to it. Throughout, strings and horns are lushly arranged. As she hits her half-century, is Downs acknowledging that she might, after all, be a diva? When El Cigala joins in on the unashamedly swooning cover of Juan Alfredo Jiménez's ‘Un Mundo Raro’, Downs' voice segues from a booming baritone to a higher, girlish moan and back to a breathy desperation. Mortality frames Mexican artistic expression, and Lila Downs is perhaps its finest musical expression right now.