Girl Ultra: Tiny Desk Concert

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/21/ [login to see] /girl-ultra-tiny-desk-concert
Girl Ultra's music is never one thing for long. After coming up in Mexico City's alt R&B scene, Mariana de Miguel built on that premise with experiments in house, bolero, pop and punk, fused with her own distinct glint. Her El Tiny performance is an effortless flash of all she is capable of and of the commanding performance she's finessed over her career. Even the onomatopoeic chorus of house track "BOMBAY" translates seamlessly to the desk.

Slowed and acoustic as it is, the El Tiny version of "Punk" captures the frenetic rush of the original, itself an alt transfiguration of Gwen Stefani's "Bubble Pop Electric" that interpolates its pop chorus and tailors it to the allure of going out in the south side of Mariana de Miguel's hometown of Mexico City. "Dime tú que voy a hacer con este feeling," ("You tell me what I'm going to do with this feeling") she asks, ostensibly of the person she's singing about. But it's also a question that speaks to the mutability of her performance: effusive and commanding, but never lacking a controlled restraint as it evolves. As she sings in "DameLove," "feelings always come and go."