Fatherhood has suited Francois Peglau extremely well. According to the artist, his second album, La Crísis del Segundo Disco, is greatly inspired by his new role, and you can easily tell by the melodies he chose to highlight. The album is as lo-fi as anything Peglau has ever done, yet it’s full of slow, reggae-style rhythms, sweet surf guitars, quiet synth lines, and pure sentimentality. It has enough lullabies to soothe a baby, enough chill-out vibes for the rest of us, and the same clever lyrics characteristic of the self-proclaimed anarchist pop singer.
In La Crísis del Segundo Disco, we get to hear Peglau in top form, both as a lyricist and a musician. Across the record’s 13 tracks, the artist creates a sound that falls between The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Lyrically, Peglau is still the enfant terrible that we’ve come to love, providing poignant criticisms of consumerism and escapist culture. In “Dubai,” the superb preview single for the record, we even get to hear Slavoj Zizek schooling us on the real meaning of happiness. There’s a lot of questioning of the state of the world and where it’s going, but Peglau never sounds whiny or trite. Every word comes off as a genuine hope for a better future.
It’s complex stuff, yet he manages to make everything sound like poetry wrapped in Clash-style pseudo reggae. There’s also a lot of sweetness, heartbreak, and nostalgia in this record. You can get it on Bandcamp or-–if you’re one of the lucky souls in Lima—you can catch him opening for Blur’s first performance in the city.
