La Belleza

Lido Pimienta doesn’t put out music very often—she averages one album roughly every five years—but the Colombian-born, Toronto-based auteur ensures that every release is a game-changing, 180-degree heel turn that rewards your patience and alters your perception of her artistry. Even in a discography that spans the electronic avant-pop experiments of 2016’s Polaris Music Prize-winning *La Papessa* and the Afro Colombian roots-music explorations of 2020’s *Miss Colombia*, *La Belleza* (Spanish for “the beauty”) is distinguished by its sheer audacity. Inspired by the film scores of Czech composer Luboš Fišer, *La Belleza* sees Pimienta dive headlong into the world of classical music, with the help of Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, producer/string arranger Owen Pallett, and a backing choir that veers between Gregorian chants and castrati trills. But Pimienta uses these European musical traditions in service of deeply personal meditations on love and identity, paying tribute to her homeland on the harp-plucked lullaby “Mango,” addressing the reconciliation with her almost-ex-husband on the stirring serenade “¿Quién Tiene La Luz (El Perdón),” and smuggling Caribbean rhythms into the orchestra pit on “El Dembow del Tiempo.” But even non-Spanish-speaking listeners will get easily swept up in *La Belleza*’s overwhelming emotional power. Pimienta was already a force of nature, but when backed by the earthquaking militaristic march of “Aun Te Quiero,” she sounds truly omnipotent.

The Colombian Canadian musician brings orchestral music, traditional rhythms, and romantic separation into conversation to celebrate personal homecoming and ancestral communion.

Inspired by the music of Luboš Fiser and Catholic requiem mass, the instrumentals are deft and surprising, but Pimienta’s captivating, flawless vocals steal the show