On Friday, February 14th, Los Angeles band Marinero, led by creative force Jess Sylvester, will release their new album, La La La, on CD/LP/DSPs worldwide through Hardly Art Records. This 12-track album features the previously released single “Taquero” alongside standout tracks “Dream Suite,” “Sea Changes,” and today’s Latin Soul ballad “Cruz.”
Playfully named both for the city that helped shape it and the sophisticated pop it contains, La La La is multivalent and endlessly lush. The album was recorded at Savannah Studios in Los Angeles and co-produced by Jess Sylvester and Jason Kick, featuring contributions from Chicano Batman’s Eduardo Arenas and labelmates Chris Cohen and Shana Cleveland (La Luz). Weaved throughout these 12 songs are motivational anthems about self-acceptance and playful numbers about flirting through food, shaping a set rich with humor, empathy, and encouragement.
Sylvester, born to parents of Mexican and Irish-American descent who settled in San Francisco, has sometimes encountered preconceived notions of his sound and style that aren’t correct. On La La La, he simultaneously steps into and out of those preconceptions, singing tracks above salsa in joyous Spanish or pondering the dynamics of the Hollywood Ten and blacklists above mysterious lap steel and teasing trumpet. His identity should now be clear: He is a Californian, making music shaped by the diversity of encounters and experiences that are a central part of that state’s fabric. Never before has he presented himself so fully and unabashedly on tape as with La La La, an album Sylvester built with new inspirations to deliver new charms.