"Materia oscura", Parade’s sixth album, this was supposed to be Parade’s “dark record”, but eventually it has become something “different”, a work of darkness and brightness at the same time. In any case, one thing is clear: this is Parade’s best album by far, and that is saying something. The tracks of the album (also released in vinyl, Parade’s first ever, including an extra track, “El viajero del tiempo”) are inundated by w…

"Materia oscura", Parade’s sixth album, this was supposed to be Parade’s “dark record”, but eventually it has become something “different”, a work of darkness and brightness at the same time. In any case, one thing is clear: this is Parade’s best album by far, and that is saying something. The tracks of the album (also released in vinyl, Parade’s first ever, including an extra track, “El viajero del tiempo”) are inundated by washes of pop, an inevitable outcome in this project. But carried out in a Jekyll-and-Hyde way, because Antonio has managed to infuse the record with a dark spirit: there are tragedy songs, ghosts, apparitions, one dead person per song on average… so, how is it possible to have such bright and sunny songs with such gloomy interiors, and still end up feeling uplifted and not depressed? It is quite simple: Parade’s main features are still there: the strange and the wonderful. A sense of wonder which astonishes us and takes us really close to his three-minute pop space-operas. Parade is tired of sad songs and wants to make us jump on our seats, dance, shout “Beetlejuice” three times, push each other… the Parade way, of course. So we have songs to sing, to dance, songs with electricity and old-fashioned too: full of singles, like "Materia oscura". Or, as we dance along the album, tracks like “No más rocanrol”, a true statement, or “Nunca bailo”, a story with a moral (dancing is good but excesses take their toll)… or “Trasplutonia”, a perfect pop song to surf in Mars! It is an album that his fans will no doubt celebrate, because nothing is missing, but at the same time it shows us the most dynamic Parade ever. There are homages to early seventies disco music (with Don Cornelius and his “Soul train line”), to the true gothic literature - the one from the 19th Century - complete with an enamoured Death. There is a song dedicated to the great Gino Paoli, the man who has lived 40 years with a bullet in his heart. There are echoes of Phil Spector and Vainica Doble, the scent of Solera, Franco Battiato and Carlos Berlanga... and ex-student reunions in H.P. Lovecraft’s Innsmouth, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff parading united by love and hate, almost like it happened sixty years ago… and of course science and fiction, replicants, adventures in Mars, an ode to pain… in space, and a final declaration in “Partidario del desierto”, in a film-like end. All in all, "Materia oscura" is full of amazing stories and songs that you have to believe to enjoy… to death!