Where his last album, 2019's
Introducing Juan Pablo, served as a virtual travelogue through his native region, Uruguayan D.I.Y. pop ex-pat
Juan Wauters' 2021 outing comes across as more of a cultural document of a specific time and place, namely New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic. Like its predecessor, which was recorded on a mobile rig with a variety of collaborators throughout Latin America,
Real Life Situations also began with a synergetic intent and does indeed include an array of (mostly American) guests captured in the months before the lockdown. Like so many things during this era, the project took a completely different turn once
Wauters was quarantined by circumstance in his Brooklyn neighborhood. The resulting set, delivered with the singer/songwriter's typical enthusiasm, is a wild panoply of musical styles, voices, moods, and instruments, peppered throughout with lo-fi radio and TV samples, spoken asides, and field recordings. Over casual flutterings of nylon-stringed guitar, scuffy drum machine beats, and cheap keyboards,
Wauters and collaborators like
Mac DeMarco and
Cola Boyy filter the "new normal" (aka real-life situations) through his peculiar lens, turning out anxious lo-fi pop gems like "Locura" and the frenetic "Presentation," the latter featuring
Nick Hakim and Benamin. Tucked in between the longer cuts (and sometimes within them) are brief pastiches of radio and television chatter representing the collective global psyche of fear and anger, with occasional forays into affirmation and hope.
Wauters himself even interrupts with a mid-album verbal check-in, listing the date (July 10, 2020), and wondering when he'll be able to play a show again. With songs ranging from wonky Casio jams to jumbled guitar pop and twittering Latin raps, there's a lot of variance here, but
Real Life Situations' diversity is also a big part of its appeal. It plays more like a quirky homemade mixtape than a proper album which makes for a surprisingly fun listen, even with its darker tones. ~ Timothy Monger