Pumarosa - Devastation

It’s finally here. Much anticipated on the indie scene, Pumarosa’s second album “Devastation” arrives two years after “The Witch” skyrocketed the before unheard-of band to underground success. Their sound is undeniably unique, a mix of techno, trance and grunge, with a little pinch of something you can’t quite put your finger on. The album comes after front woman Isabel Muñoz-Newsome’s battle with cervical cancer, and approaches her new outlook on herself and her sexuality. It’s surprisingly optimistic despite the darker synth-y elements that have replaced the indie guitar of “The Witch”.

Opening with the single “Fall Apart”, you can tell straight away that this is a much darker tone to the band’s previous work. Isabel sings moody lyrics, a-la “The Only Ones”, over almost inaccessible electronic beats. This song takes some work to get into, but once you’re there by god it’s worth it. It’s the perfect opener to an album which shows the growth and change in the musicians making it, and the slightly more experimental edge has a genuine joy to it, betraying the fun that was obviously had in developing Pumarosa’s new material.

Despite their differences, it’s actually incredibly hard to extract individual songs from the album as a whole. The entire collection works together to create an epic emotional journey and, in the nature of pre streaming releases, begs to be listened to as an entity unto itself, not just shuffled into a playlist.

There are however a few stand out tracks. “Loose Control” takes on pop elements (wrapped up in the unmistakable garb of Pumarosa weirdness) to compliment the foot tapping beat and catchy chorus. The albums namesake “Devastation” is absolutely my favourite of the tracks, meeting in the middle of the emotional lyricism and electronic elements of the album. It’s almost the flip side of “Fall Apart”, melodious and clean sounding, a perfect palate cleanser after an emotionally taxing (though incredibly enjoyable) musical journey. There’s something so sexy about this album, and despite the bluntness of some of the lyrics (I’d rather you didn’t fuck me in a coffin, Isabel), there’s a real rawness and vulnerability that is so fantastically attractive, especially in a music scene dominated by cloying love songs and lacklustre shallow pop music.

It’s hard work, sure, but stick at it and this album is a treasure trove of cross genre music, infused with the joy of a band who really genuinely are just having a good time creating.