Estrella Morente has been having a bad day. One of the worst in months. Her country house is filled with scorpions. They have come crawling out of a nearby ravine whose creek now smells metallic. This land isn’t fertile. That’s what yerma means.

*

her new album is called Mujeres, and her new audience is called people who saw Almodóvar’s Volver, for in that film she sings the title song while on-screen Penelope Cruz lip-syncs it. Everyone wins!

This song, Zambra, harkens back to the flamenco sound of a hundred years past (note geriatric Grupo de Laúdes del Albaicín in the video)

Quitate de la ventana porque voy a suspirar,
mis suspiros son de fuego y te pueden abrasar,
¿que quieres de mi, que quieres de mi,
si hasta el agua que yo bebo te la tengo que pedir?

Get away from the window, because I’m going to sigh.
My sighs are fire and I could roast you.
What do you want from me, what do you want –
must I even ask you for the water I drink