A working knowledge of Spanish will illuminate the Venezuelan-born, London-based digital auteur’s self-titled third album. His previous work, influenced by hip-hop and club culture, occasionally featured Arca’s treated voice. But Björk and Kanye contributor Alejandro Ghersi has now begun singing in his native language. On songs like Anoche or Reverie, the effect is Björk-like; on Desafio, it is borderline conventional – until you grapple with the lyrics. Understanding this avant garde artist has rarely been simple: sexuality, suffering and fluid states all recur in his quicksilver works, like the punishing, yet beautiful Castration. Words make Arca’s tense, sad hyper-modernity a little more accessible, if no less strange.
