Legendary rock star Charly García breaks silence with new record

Legendary musician Charly García is celebrating the release of his first album since 2017, breaking a seven-year drought for the rock nacional star.

García, 72, released La Lógica del Escorpión on Wednesday – his first album since Random in 2017. It’s a collection of previously unreleased songs, new versions of his own songs, cover versions and collaborations with other rock legends.

The album, which the musician began recording four years ago, can be heard on digital platforms from 9pm local time Wednesday, while a limited run of special-edition vinyls – with cover art by the musician's historic collaborator Renata Schussheim – were available for preorder.

Across its 13 tracks, García revisits songs from his debut project Sui Generis, invites ex-bandmates from iconic band Serú Girán in to play, performs Spanish-language versions of songs by John Lennon and The Byrds (with his old friend Fito Páez), and even presents a posthumous collaboration with Luis Alberto Spinetta, another domestic rock idol.

García has been hospitalised several times in recent years due to health problems and his mobility is severely reduced, which is why he makes few public appearances and has not given full-scale concerts since 2021, during his 70th birthday celebrations.

Aesop

The name of the album is inspired by Aesop's fable of the scorpion and the frog, which the musician recites near the end.

“I came away from listening to it with the impression that the ‘logic’ to which the title alludes is García's compulsion to remain attached to his artistic commitment in spite of everything, to the very end,” music critic Luciano Lahiteau told AFP.

“It's not a self-indulgent album, not at all. It's a very rock album, with guitars, with his voice – chastened, aching – at the forefront with its roughness and shortcomings,” he stresses.

The album begins with rocker ‘Rompela,’ a version of a song that the musician recorded almost 15 years ago for his album Kill Gil, and continues with ‘Yo ya sé,’ a beat-heavy tune with García's signature-style lyrics.

“Freud has ruined everything, like the Internet,” he sings.

With a little help from his friends

The track list includes ‘La pelícana y el androide,’ a posthumous collaboration with Spinetta, who died in 2012.

The song was part of a joint project that was cut short in the mid-1980s, though Spinetta eventually rescued the song for his 1986 album Privé. Now Charly has taken the voice of his dear friend ‘flaco’ from one of those demos and made his own version of the track.

Two of García's Serú Girán bandmates also feature: David Lebón, who contributes guitars on ‘El club de los 27’ and ‘La medicina Nº 9’ (another Beatles reference) and Pedro Aznar, who collaborated on ‘América’ – a reworking of a David Bowie song.

A few days ago, Serú Girán was named on the line-up of next year’s Quilmes Rock Festival, which raised expectations that the band may unite together on stage, although most industry experts expect García' not to participate.

On the album, Charly also reworks ‘Te recuerdo invierno’ – one of his first compositions – and ‘Juan Represión’, a song he originally released in 1974 with Sui Generis, the duo he formed with Nito Mestre.

“Although it was recorded a couple of years ago, the famous ‘antenna’ with which García tunes in to the times seems to remain active with songs like ‘Juan Represión,’ ‘Autofemicido’, or ‘América’ – unexpectedly current,” said Lahiteau about the author of classic songs like ‘Los dinosaurios’ or ‘Canción de Alicia en el país.’

The album concludes with ‘Rock and roll Star’ – a Spanish version of a song by The Byrds, on which Fito Páez joins in.

“Others in his place would be content to do a watered-down self-celebration of themselves,” says Lahiteau. “Garcia can't stop reworking himself and testing himself – that seems to be the logic.”