Jefre Cantu-Ledesma
“Love After Love”
A Year with 13 Moons (out 02.10 on Mexican Summer)
A standout track on one of the finest albums of the young year, “Love After Love” is an overwhelming rumination on how the heart heals in the wake of loss. We open encircled in dense, unrelenting, sometimes brutal noise, but the haze slowly drifts and gives way to gauzy, beautiful synths. As in real life, the static doesn’t stay silent forever, battling with the melody until the bitter end. However, the longer the track moves, the further the ratio shifts, and by the end, we are left reveling in a gorgeous, clearer picture. It’s a powerful metaphor that speaks very clearly to me, regardless of whether it’s what Ledesma had in mind while making it. That interpretive quality is one of the components of his music that has made him such a beloved artist to me (and so many others). Magic.
