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Y La Bamba, 'Dibujos de Mi Alma'

"Dibujos de Mi Alma," the lead single from experimental folk band Y La Bamba's upcoming album, Lucha, captures how it feels to yearn for someone while trying to avoid the pitfalls of toxic love. Lead vocalist and producer Luz Elena Mendoza Ramos offers a glimpse into her soul, singing in a whispery tone that conjures a long-lost lover's type of despair: "Tanto tiempo sin hablar contigo / Sin saber de tu bienestar / Extraño la manera cuando andabas conmigo" ("So much time without speaking to you / Without knowing how you have been / Missing the way you walked with me"). Her words float over lucid guitar and whirling synth, backed by a conga beat and punctuated with buoyant trumpet and reverberating sighs. The track builds into a disorienting wash of delay, blending romance with feelings of dissociation and loneliness, until the lyrics resolve the story in an ambivalent place: "Se ven como se ven."

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Pilar Galvan
Pilar Galvan (she/her) is a reporter whose work focuses on the intersections of media and culture. She is passionate about film, music and sports. She recently graduated from Yale University where she double majored in anthropology, specializing in ethnomusicology, and art, concentrating in digital media. She previously worked in digital media at art institutions including MoMA PS1 in Queens, NY, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, Portugal.