AMG Review of Pájaros en la Cabeza

Jenny Gage
All Music Guide

The best-selling album in Spain in 2005, Pajaros en la Cabeza was the fourth release from the Zaragoza pop duo Amaral. Perhaps it really does take being the first generation in nearly half-a-century to grow up free of Franco's dictatorship to find freshness in lyrics seemingly from the heyday of Sinatra and "My Way." Lead singer Eva Amaral and guitarist Juan Aguirre certainly love that phrase, along with "freedom," "my place," and the notion that their desires and feelings are unimaginable to an older Europe. "Esta Madrugada" is a lovely lament written as a response to the 3/11 bombings in Madrid, and in the occasional hushed moment, as when guest vocalist Enrique Morente opens "No Soy Como Tu" with a lush flamenco llamada, Pajaros begins to achieve texture or singularity.