Translating to "handsome boy" (eller "kjekk gutt" på godt norsk), Wachito Rico is the much-anticipated, long-overdue debut album of Norway's indie bedroom pop-king boy pablo.
Fun fact: boy pablo is a musical project by Norwegian-Chilean Nicolas Muñoz. The singer-songwriter started the project in 2015, and released his debut single "Flowers" in January 2016. Since then he's gone off to do bunch of cool things.
On Instagram, Muñoz told his followers the best way to listen to the album is to listen from start to bottom, preferably in a place where you can't get interrupted. (Which is exactly what I did before writing this.) Adding up to 40 minutes of wonderful music, Wachito Rico is incredibly enjoyable, and makes you want to pretty much dance and cry at the same time.
Before the release of the full album on October 23rd, several of the songs had been released as singles. "hey girl", "honey", "rest up", and "leave me alone!" are all available as individual vinyls on boy pablo's webshop, and they also have songs on their B-sides (which you should DEFINITELY check out on Spotify). They also make up the first four chapters in the "Wachito Rico the Movie" on YouTube. The fifth and final chapter is the title-song, "Wachito Rico". Although I love the music and the whole vibe, my favorite thing about these videos have got to be that they're narrated by Rick Kirkham from Tiger King.
When I say this debut album was long-overdue, I am NOT kidding. Instead of going on and on about everything boy pablo managed to achieve before its release, I made a short summary of some of the biggest achievements:
Won "Newcomer of the Year" at P3 Gull in 2018 (Norwegian award show).
Won "This Year's Breakthrough" at the Norwegian Grammy's in 2019, accompanied by a 250.000 NOK grant (roughly $25,000).
Performed at Coachella as the only Norwegian artist in 2019.
Had several sold out tours around the world, including tours in: Europe, North-America, South-America and Asia. (Which you get to experience through their vlogs.)
As I'm sat listening to the album, I can't help but notice that the use of Spanish is more frequent in these songs than with earlier releases. He's never been shy of using the language in his work, with former songs and EPs being named things such as "Soy Pablo" and "tkm (te quiero mucho". On songs such as "wachito rico" and "te vas // don't go", Muñoz is going back and forth between the two languages. This gives a more personal feel to the album, in some way, and compliments the style of music he makes. We also get an instrumental tune with "aleluya" and "vamos a la playa", with the latter being an interlude leading up to the title-song.
I can't get through this without mentioning "mustache" at least once. I would call it a 2 minutes and 45 seconds long piece of art, with lyrics such as "I dreamt I had a mustache. It was dope, I looked just like Tom Selleck" and "Twenty-one, still nothing under my nose. Except for when I sneeze, you know what I mean". ...I mean; What else can you do besides thanking boy pablo for this lyrical masterpiece.
(Also have to give a shoutout to "come home" for being my personal favorite off the album <3.)
Throughout the album we get to listen to these beautiful ballads, as well as super fun jams that you'll probably never get tired of. So that leaves me with nothing left to say but:
Well done, boy pablo.
If you wanna go cry after you've finished reading this, I'd recommend "te vas // don't go", "nowadays" and "i <3 u". And if you wanna have fun and dance alone in your room (which I've done a lot of during this pandemic), I'd check out "hey girl", "leave me alone!" and "wachito rico". Enjoy!
You can listen to Wachito Rico on Spotify and Apple Music now, and follow boy pablo on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Written by Nathalie S. Knudsen