Hurray for the Riff Raff
The Navigator

Probably knowing that the Puerto Rican Mister Luis Fonsi, the author of 'Despacito', the reggaeton that has become the true anthem of this year 2017, and in which he, as an American citizen (Puerto Ricans are American citizens, and a recent referendum on becoming the 51st US state was an overwhelming yes, although the path is quite long and complicated) considers his song as 'the best response to Trump's culture of walls and division: a song that became the number one American world song and sung in Spanish,' is somewhat amusing. Yet perhaps it contains a small truth.

Apart from the fact that the Spanish language is the second most spoken language in the USA after English (at least 14%), the USA hosts practically the second largest Spanish-speaking community in the world after Mexico and before Spain, Colombia, and Argentina.

The truth that emerges from this data is that those whom Luis Fonsi still as a Puerto Rican calls his 'brothers', the Mexicans, Central Americans, and South Americans, and in general all the Latin and Spanish-speaking population, today constitute an important component in the social fabric of the United States of America, and of which Donald Trump, beyond his conservative and racist ideology and his yet unrealized and distant intentions, like anyone else part of the establishment and the world of American politics, cannot ignore.

Of course, Luis Fonsi, beyond the positive contents of his message, and 'Despacito' (the first Spanish-language hit to reach the number one position in the USA since 'La Macarena') is not exactly the expression of what can be defined as the cultural heritage that Spanish speakers bring to the United States of America, nor at the same time something that has to do with that rightful integration and blending of the two different cultures (there are evidently no social contents in what otherwise aims to be just a pop song) and that then, going back in time, has constituted a constant among the different populations that have over time made the United States of America that great country (albeit full of contradictions) that it is today.

Now, without bringing up other pop icons (I think primarily of J-Lo, who I think is the most popular personality among all), I simply refer to the circumstances that led me to listen repeatedly in recent days to this album by Hurray for the Riff Raff titled 'The Navigator', released on March 15th by ATO Records.

A reality in the American folk and pop music world that is gaining increasing notoriety for several years and a project fundamentally based on the figure and artistic skills of Alynda Lee Segarra.

Originally from Puerto Rico and raised by her aunt in the Bronx, New York, Alynda is actually the daughter of Ninfa Segarra, one of the most prominent political figures for the Puerto Rican community in New York and historically very close to Rudolph Giuliani.

But Alynda has a rebellious personality. At the age of 17, she leaves home and starts traveling across North America aboard freight trains. During the same period (we are talking about 2007) she joins the Dead Man Street Orchestra, before creating Hurray for the Riff Raff, the musical project with which she has truly established herself as a relevant figure in the world of indie and alternative music not only in the USA but also in Europe.

A success that is not accidental but a result of artistic and compositional skills, as well as performative, that are out of the ordinary and that blend with Alynda's intelligence and sensitivity in delving into the social events and realities of her country as well as a good knowledge of American musical tradition and that of her country of origin.

'The Navigator' is a concept album. The album, like an opera divided into acts, tells the story of a young Puerto Rican girl named Navita Milagros Negron who leads a borderline existence, on the street, amidst abuse and stories of drug and alcohol abuse. Needless to say that Navita is also very much Segarra and that her story is also the story of New York, a very important piece of the city of New York and consequently of the United States of America.

The album immediately opens with an experimental and deliberately introductory track (the title is 'Entrance') where somehow a certain contamination of genre immediately emerges in what is a purely vocal piece and where typically gospel sounds mix with church choirs and traditional Irish folk.

Listening to the introduction, it becomes difficult to understand what to expect from the rest of the album, which with 'Living In The City', 'Hungry Ghost', 'Live To Save' instead immediately shows the group's rock and roll attitude, which takes up sounds that could have belonged to the most radio-friendly Lou Reed or even better Garland Jeffreys. After all, Lou Reed, frustrated by being a middle-class Jewish man in whom he did not recognize himself, would have wanted to be black, and in the same way, he inspired Garland Jeffreys (and contributed to his notoriety, given Lou's colossal popularity), it is also true that Lou would have wanted at the same time to simply be a kid from Sheepshead Bay who was half African-American and half Puerto Rican. The mutual attraction in this case was inevitable.

Immersing herself in a mimicry with the album's main character, 'Nothing's Gonna Change That Girl' marks a change in the album's sounds: an evocative folk ballad in which Alynda showcases all her incredible chanteuse skills, and which in the conclusion opens up to typically Hispanic sounds, blending Marianne Faithfull's fatalist and elegant cabaret ('The Navigator', 'Halfway There', 'Settle') with the tradition of Latin-American music ('Fourteen Floors', 'Finale'). But if there are songs that truly make a difference and ultimately almost invite you to get up and clap, as if instead of listening to a record you were watching a movie at an old-style cinema, these are 'Rican Beach' and above all 'Pa'lante'. Two songs sung at the piano by Alynda, the first with more typically dramatic and cinematic atmospheres; the second instead a seemingly disjointed composition without points of reference and where it ranges from Marianne Faithfull's genius to Beatles-inspired visions. Perhaps it is the most beautiful (unreleased) song I have heard throughout this year 2017.

I think this is an album that deserves to be listened to, even multiple times before being fully appreciated, and going beyond all forms of prejudice. At times, in trying to find a point of comparison to this young songwriter, I even thought of a gigantic artist such as Lhasa de Sela, also half Hispanic and half American citizen, who died tragically young from breast cancer at the age of only 38. An incredible artist who perhaps unlike Alynda, drew on a desert-inspired imagery and visions in some way derived from the gipsy and popular culture of Latin America. Here, instead, the reference seems to be in any case that of the city. Alynda Segarra's stories are suburban tales, at times dramatic and at times with that same radicalness, depth, and extremism of Lou Reed and Jim Carroll, and the album - 'The Navigator' - is at the same time a story, like a narrative guide that literally takes you by the hand and introduces you to the depths of the Big Apple's belly.