Alynda Segarra has come a long way. Literally, as a teenage runaway who escaped New York to hop freight trains and ended up settling in New Orleans; and musically, on a journey from recording country folk covers of Billie Holiday and Lead Belly towards this eighth album, which finds them with a new record label and in their strongest position yet for crossover pop rock success.
Five years have passed since the last release, which was a concept album of political folk rock that saw Segarra reconnecting with their Puerto Rican roots and the causes of their people. Lyrically, they’re no less serious here. Precious Cargo is a slow, semi-rapped story of the long journey of some refugees to arrive in the US: “We sleep on the floor for 17 days/Foil blanket shivering hard.” The male voice at the end of the song is someone Segarra met while working with a volunteer organisation that supports asylum seekers. “Keep helping people,” he urges, “because immigrants are suffering.”
