Montaña rusa: the day the muse went mute

Some days are neither good nor bad: they're a roller coaster. They go up, they go down, they turn you upside down and leave your stomach in your throat. Montaña rusa (Roller Coaster) is about one of those days, and it says so plainly, stretching the word until it seems the car will never stop falling.

The lyric is short and revolves around an idea I find very fitting for a song project: the muse is dying. And not only that. On top of it, she's gone mute. That "on top of it" amuses me, such a bar-room complaint, because it turns the thing into a double misfortune. Not only do you lose your inspiration: you can't get a single word out either.

Formally, as usted

There's a detail I love that recurs in several PLANETA GAYFOLK lyrics: usted, the formal "you". Here it appears at the key moment. I can't help crying so much because I, unlike you (usted), did love him. Addressing the person who broke your heart as usted has something of elegant revenge about it, of putting distance with a single pronoun. And then comes the punchline: as they say, until three days ago. That temporal precision is brilliant to me, because it deflates the drama just when it's at its peak.

The song admits it tries to hold back at all hours. That it doesn't manage. That it cries. And instead of hiding it, it lets it out in a chorus that stretches like the vowels of a copla. For me that's very much this planet: letting emotion overflow and, at the same time, winking at the listener.

When to put it on? That day you wake up euphoric and by midday you're crying in the office toilets. That afternoon when everything's going fine until you see a photo. That night when you no longer know whether to laugh or cry and end up doing both.

I'd dedicate it to any creative person who has lost their muse because of heartbreak. Don't worry: muses die a lot, but they also come back to life.

The full lyrics are below. Listen on Spotify