Upon first listen of
Divino Niño’s
Foam, I was struck by how quickly I wanted and needed to listen to it again. It shouldn’t have been surprising, the band’s signature sound of dreamy like guitars and laid back vocals is so welcoming and addicting. Made up of Javier Forero, Camilo Medina, Guillermo Rodriguez, and Pierce Codina, Divino Niño has tapped into an old school sensation of pop perfection. There are tons of bands and musicians that find themselves traveling down that path, but few do it with the laser focus of Divino Niño.
Foam takes little time in establishing its atmosphere. The title track opens the album beautifully, a sparkling note before dazzling guitars jump in. It sets a beachside tone instantly with a loving ocean metaphor and some psychedelic notes that keeping engaged throughout the album. The bright exclamations of “FOAM” following every desiring line at the songs end send you away on an ecstatic journey you won’t regret.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCyupKt1i7Q&t=1s
Most of the songs on
Foam fall under two themes: pure joyful love and discontentment with the world around them (which more often than not often involves love loss). Even with such disparate tones, their sonic delivery is constantly alluring and sexy. Even the most down trodden of songs, like “Koda” and its bordering on painful ode to a bad relationship or the yearning of good times long gone in “B@d Luck”, feel like a kiss on a warm summer day.
The two (mostly) Spanish language songs on the album are a great way to harness those two big themes. “Quiero” takes on the more positive and joyful aspects of the set of songs. Lines indulging in frozen treats tasting of a lovers skin and being so hungry for them that they can’t stand instantly give off a sexy vibe that is gently encapsulated by the song’s loving chorus. “I don’t ever wanna change your mind, I wanna be with you the way you are.” “Quiero” balances the carnal with the sweet and reaps the benefits of both.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q35vwQEV_Y
“Maria” on the other hand focuses the more melancholic notes of the album to heart. It’s tale of love gone wrong is full of great imagery: open wounds, eating hearts and spitting out the narrator’s illusions of their relationships. The cry of "por que" early on in the song languishes in painful questioning strange motivations. The lyrics are sad and desperate while the sundrenched instrumentals make it sound like fun summer romp. The vocals in the final verse amp up feal cathartic in their delivery, bridging the two sentiments into a razor-sharp presentation that is hard to top.
Beyond those two songs, the rest of the album is entirely in English and holds on to its ideas so well and changes it up enough to hold your attention. “Melty Caramelo” in particular feels like a wonderful outlier, opting for an even mellower and R&B flavored sound to go with Medina’s silky vocals. Twinkling keys ornate the lush love song that remind you of a lost gem of the early 70s; maybe a relic of the Delfonics’ classic sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meE7X6ejL8E
Foam is one of the tightest albums to be released this year, balancing its themes to near perfection. It only makes sense that Divino Niño would close it out with a song coalescing everything that came before into an upheaval. Where the melancholy vibes on the album were being passed onto the singer,“Cosmic Flower” upends that notion with the vocals delivering the scathing emotions. “My mind is the pleasant of unkindness when you roam it like a wolf” is such a damning line on the track that eventually runs into a blissfully ignorant psychedelic trip in the end. “Cosmic flower you’re so high and so am I, get me higher, cosmic flower”. It's as if everything is washed away in those final moments, ready to start again for better of worse. And in this case, thanks to Divino Niño's addicting melodies, it's certainly for better.
You can listen to Divino Niño's Foam on streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, & more. You can also purchase physical copies of Foam, including the beautiful transparent orange vinyl, through their label Winspear or their Bandcamp. 