Paz Lenchantin - Triste (2025) Hi-Res

Paz Lenchantin looks for a fresh start with her so-called debut album, Triste. Too many are willing to forget the solid work of Yellow mY skYcaptain, which released twenty-four years before this. A shame it is shoved to the side, as it remains a great album. But it is very far removed from the sound Triste has, which feels like a fresh start for the former Pixies member. There are musicians whose dedication to the stage and studio overwhelms a passive listener. This project, that band, it all becomes rather tricky to keep up with. That fog of interesting career moves means it’s a tad harder to connect with a songwriter or musician directly. Triste looks to improve that. Lenchantin provides a direct link to her work with Triste. Quality like this comes to define musicians for much of their career. Lenchantin has found an instrumental quality and vocal strength which will overshadow her previous achievements. Triste is just that good. Lead single Novela is a solid start, but what follows is a series of broad, brilliant strokes.

Moody instrumental pieces with unexpected depths are crucial to this success. Triste relies on the catchy tones of Novela but brings about a foreboding sense in its early moments. Lenchantin warns listeners off rolling the dice on Lows & Highs, not because risks are not worth taking, but we are all too often saddled with success in music. Lows & Highs takes a realistic turn, a damning of those who scrape through with just a few cuts and bruises. What of those who are stunned, or pushed back, by those risks? It’s a strong moment from Triste, an album which speaks to the perceived failures of our lives. There is healing to be had from those moments. Whispered deliveries on the perverse but enchanting Woman of Nazareth highlight those punk roots, inevitable given a decade with one of the forefathers of a still-popular style. Lenchantin is much more than her previous projects though and goes to great lengths in proving her independent, instrumental and vocal strengths with Triste.

Continuing with that slightly disconnected but still charming vocal style is the strongest part of Lenchantin’s latest. Roll with the Punches does more for the depth of an overused phrase than Bryan Adams did with his song of the same name earlier this year. Not hard at all, but nice to hear it given an appropriate and respectable message. Lenchantin sounds completely disconnected from her previous projects, and that is the best place for her to be. Songs like Wish I Was There have that same drifting quality Lenchantin was laying down bass for with Pixies but crucial to that familiar tone is a new message, a fresh take on old concepts. Triste offers that the whole way through and the crucial part of it is its moody atmosphere.

Harsh, biting guitar work on Si No! and the refreshing, often creeping emotional tone these instrumentals create is magnificent. Thematically rich experiences from song to song are not a given but they are welcome, frequently brilliant cores for these songs. Adam is a phenomenal piece from Lenchantin. Songs which explore the necessity of risk and death but pair the message with a suitably out-there, contrasting instrumental. Rich instrumental examples in the latter half, like Lucia, are reliant on those strong saxophone additions. It’s a beautiful skill Lenchantin has and this so-called debut is a fantastic listening experience. Depths beyond that of her peers and a refreshing take on those inevitable worries of life and death. Finding solace in stories from generations and pairing that with new instrumental thrills hasn’t sounded this good in a while.