"Malas Compañías" (Bad companies) is the second studio album of the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

singer-songwriter

Joaquín Sabina Joaquín Ramón Martínez Sabina (born 12 February 1949) is a Spanish musician, singer, composer, and poet. His songs usually treat love, heartbreaks and society with significant use of literary figures as in the baroque-literature style. He ha ...

, which was released under CBS, in 1980. Sabina started working in this new album short after the release of his previous album, Inventario, two years before.

Background

After leaving Movieplay, his former record label and signing with

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

, Sabina started departing from the vindictive tone of the songs of his previous album and started focusing on other themes and other stories that would be part of the singer's personal style. When the recording of this album started in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, the performer began collaborating with new producers and artists such as José Luis de Carlos, the renowned Hilario Camacho and José Antonio Romero.

Style

The lyrics of Joaquín Sabina, in this second album, started focusing on usual stories and personal feelings. The opening track and the first

maxi single A maxi single, maxi-single, or maxi CD (sometimes abbreviated to MCD or CDM) is a music single release with more than the usual two tracks of an A-side song and a B-side song. Maxi singles are often mistaken for extended plays (EPs), especial ...

from this album was "Calle melancolía" (Melancholy street), a song which revolves about feelings of loneliness and depression. Although this song would have a moderate success during that time, it later turned into one of the most widely remembered songs of Sabina's trajectory. The following track of this album, which had the title of "Que demasiao" (Really too much?) told the sad story and troubled life of a criminal known as "El Jaro". In general, musically, the melodical sounds would prevail in this album, such is the main characteristic of the following maxi single and probably the most popular one of this release, "Pongamos que hablo de Madrid" (Let's say I'm talking about Madrid) a song that was originally written by Sabina but which had been previously recorded by

Antonio Flores Antonio González Flores (14 November 1961 – 30 May 1995) was a Spanish singer-songwriter and actor. He was Romani people, Romani on his father's side and maternal grandmother's side. Antonio is known for his pop rock style of singing. Hi ...

, whose version reached the number one position of the

Los 40 Los 40 (stylized as LOS40, formerly ''Los 40 Principales'', ) is a Spanish Top 40-themed music radio station that broadcasts current and recent music, primarily focusing on genres such as pop, dance, electropop, Electro Latin, and Reggaeton. T ...

Principales chart. The B side of that Maxi single was the song "Círculos viciosos" (Vicious circles) a more cheerful rhumba composed by

Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio José Antonio Sánchez Ferlosio (1940–2003), commonly known by his nickname Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio, was a Spanish anti-Francoist singer-songwriter and poet. Although the son of Falangist leader Rafael Sánchez Mazas, by the 1960s, Chicho ...

. The melodical sounds of this album continue until the ending track entitled "Pasándolo bien" (having a good time), which had a more accelerated rhythm with less presence of acoustic instruments and more electronic vibes.

Track listing

Reception

Unlike "Inventario", his previous release that only sold one thousand copies, Malas Compañías received a better welcome both critically and commercially. Thanks to this album and to the moderate success of the two maxi singles extracted from it, the performer started gaining media exposure. Eight years after the release of this album, CBS re-released it due to Sabina's growing popularity.

References

External links

Malas Compañías in Joaquín Sabina's official website.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Malas Compañías 1978 albums Joaquín Sabina albums