Enrique Bunbury returns to the solo life with Hellville de Luxe

Released in September, the latest studio album from the ex-vocalista de los Héroes del Silencio marks, as some critics have written, Enrique Bunbury’s return to rock ‘n’ roll. It's true. The first thing La Cumbiambera noticed about Hellville de Luxe is that the album features lots and lots of guitars. Electric, acoustic, steel—you name it, they all feature prominently in Hellville. The global instrumentation of some previous Bunbury albums has been set aside here, although the pulse of Cuban rhythms can still be felt in tracks such as “Porque las cosas cambian” and “Inrremediablemente cotidiano.” Otherwise, what you’ll find in this album is a collection of songs whose sounds range from to the electrified urgency of “Brujías Para El Dolor” to the folksy saunter of the closing track “Aqui.”

The lyrics represent the best of Bunbury, with some tracks focusing on the timeless themes of amor y desamor, while other tracks take a broader view of life’s twists and turns. All of the songs are penned with a fresh dose of poesía-a-la-Bunbury:


“Docientos huesos y un collar de calaveras”

“Tus docientos huesos y un collar de calaveras
para que sepa volver y volverte a encontrar...
Cada palabra tuya cual imagen de bota
y la lluvia cayendo por el borde de mi sombrero
y empapandote todita en tu camiseta.
Un buen verso quizá sea el lado valiente de un cobarde…
Mis pensamientos paralizan mi voluntad
y tú regando mi jardín un día de lluvia torrencial
la mejor compañia para estados de animo peligrosos…
Y yo que he dormido a tu lado puedo afirmar
que hasta las pequeñas discusiones
fueron contigo algo estupendo…”

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“Your two hundred bones and a necklace of skulls
so that I might know how to return and find you again...
Each of your words like the image of a boot
and the rain falling from the edge of my hat
and entirely moistening your shirt.
A good verse might be the brave side of a coward…
My thoughts paralyze my will
and you, watering my garden on the day of a torrential rain,
the best company for a dangerous mood…
And I who have slept at your side can affirm
that even the smallest arguments
were with you something stupendous…”

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With the Héroes del Silencio renuion tour just a year behind him, Bunbury wasted no time in taking his new album to the road and, having completed the Spanish leg of the tour, will be heading this way for his U.S./Mexico tour beginning in February. He’ll make one California stop in L.A. (although La Cumbiambera dreams of one day being able to add a Bunbury concert date to our very own Bay Area concert calendar).

As far as packaging, Bunbury’s team has gone for a country western theme, complete with a sepia toned album cover and publicity materials in which he sports not a guitar but a rifle. La Cumbiambera finds this both strange (there is no old west in Spain) and annoying given the imperialist origins of such imagery.

Nevertheless, La Cumbiambera remains a diehard fan of Bunbury’s musical versatility and lyrical genius. As Bunbury puts it—“No importa que hagas rock o rumba de Barcelona. El futuro no es la música electronica o el mestizaje. El futuro es hacer una buena puta canción.”

With Hellville de Luxe, Bunbury has done just that.