Being a Canadian, I don't have any skill in Spanish, so unfortunately I can't speak to the content of the majority of the songs. However, if they're anything like the two English-language tracks, they're going to challenge listeners' beliefs about everything from civil rights to sexual politics. What can you expect from a release where the performer introduces herself prior to the first song as a "motherfucker?" "Crack Whore" tackles the issue of racism head on and will hopefully leave any white hipster who listens to it feeling incredibly uncomfortable. In it Vegass asks why is it when white friends ask her to go buy crack for them, she's the one who ends up being called the crack whore? They're so cool because they use drugs, but when they want any they are too scared of the "types" of people who sell them to buy the stuff themselves.
While she delivers part of this song while talking over her guitar, exclaiming her bitterness at the death of the civil rights movement, when she does sing it's in a surprisingly sweet, almost wistful-sounding voice considering the lyrical content. One would expect and understand a song about such an emotionally charged subject to contain a lot of anger. However, while Vegass does allow anger to show through periodically, her ability to modulate the emotional tone of the song is what makes it powerful. After a while the constant drone of anger becomes just so much noise to be blocked out. By changing it up, by showing the hurt and disappointment racism can cause as well as the anger, she keeps our attention. The range of emotions makes the song far more real to us and offers a glimpse of the true nature of the wounds caused by racism.
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It was this type of subtlety that impressed me most about the recording. Being an experienced street performer myself, I know the types of things you have to do in order to get people to pay attention to you. First of all, volume is key when you're competing against traffic noise and occasionally that means sacrificing nuances in tone and touch. While there are still times when Vegass tends to declaim instead of sing, she still displays far more versatility with her voice than most solo acts. You don't have to be able to speak the language to understand the overall emotional content of most of her songs. Some people might wear their hearts on their sleeves. She wears it on her voice and it makes for captivating listening.
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