Mint Field
Sentimiento Mundial
SCORE: 7.8 out of 10
The songs on Sentimiento Mundial feel alive, being enriched with interesting arrangements. The production doesn’t let every nuance to be noticeable, but it adds a quasi-chaotic nature when everything is crammed in together. Mint Field have never sounded better and more intriguing than this.
Mint Field has a story that could be described as the archetypical “from rags to riches” narrative, as they went from local darlings to international sensations seemingly out of the blue. However, to say that they came from “rags” would be an insult to projects that have really struggled to get to a certain level of notoriety, but to disregard them as just a shallow, vanity trust fund project wouldn’t be fair either. Unlike some of their local sister bands like Policías y Ladrones who are dwelling deeper and deeper into bland, easy-listening dream-pop, or Parque de Cometas and their friendly mix of pop and krautrock, Mint Field are not aiming for easy, nor friendly.
It should be said that they’re not breaking any molds either, but with Sentimiento Mundial, they have delivered an undoubtedly great album. However, Mint Field’s evolution feels more like a product of all the collaborators involved (members from Ulrika Spacek and Vanishing Twin) rather than from its actual members. I could be wrong, but let’s take Estrella del Sol’s vocal delivery as an example, as it is the only element that hasn’t shown any signs of growth. Her ethereal moans haven’t deteriorated -they remain as hypnotic as ever- but they just don’t offer anything new, and in some cases (“Cuida tus Pasos”) they even get in the way of the song, awkwardly colliding with the spectacular chaos being ensued by the instrumentation.
One thing that did catch my attention was the album’s heaviness and the subtle darkness that is hinted at with sudden dissonances. On Mientras Esperas (2019), the band went into the riff-filled land, but it felt more psych-heavy rather than dark-ethereal-heavy. Now, tracks like “No Te Caigas” and “Natural” explode with dense, fuzzy, riffs that inject unseen intensity and energy. If it weren’t for its atonal chord attacked with Ranaldo-Moore aggression (actually, there are a lot of Sonic Youthisms in the album), “Contingencia” would be yet another attempt by a -relatively- young band to capitalize on the motorik aesthetics oh-so prevalent on contemporary alternative acts. “Delicadeza” has a twirling, Radiohead-esque, arpeggio that sounds pretty until “the wrong notes” come in, giving the harmonic progression a much-needed twist.
In general, Sentimiento Mundial has a Pitchfork-approved sound that will remind us of different combinations of 2010s indie-rock acts with a 90s revival flare and vocals being provided by Beth Gibbons or Karolina Brobäck; nothing new under the sun, but it is a vast improvement upon their previous catalog. The songs feel more alive, being enriched with interesting details and arrangements, and even if the production is not as roomie to let every nuance to be noticeable, the way it all sounds crammed together in certain passages adds to the quasi-chaotic nature of the album. There are disjointed moments that sound as if the band never rehearsed before coming into the studio (an intentional move, of course), but the mess ensued works beautifully. Mint Field may be far from being groundbreaking and in need of an urgent upgrade on the vocals, but they have never sounded better and more intriguing than this.
