Isabel Olive has been self-releasing music as Half Gringa for nearly a decade now, and it makes sense that her first project for her newly formed Teleférico Records is one that truly examines who this self really is. The Chicago-based songwriter’s third album Cosmovisión is both a continuation of Olive’s contemplative saloon-band indie-rock sound and a full-scale emotional spring-cleaning, a document of feeling perfectly at-home in the world as well as an admission of being totally at-sea. “This record is basically the landscape that I’ve been living in for the last several years,” Olive shares. “It feels like somewhere I’ve arrived, and I’m both completely lost and completely at home within it.”
Despite that sense of dysphoria, each of Cosmovisión’s 10 tracks feels perfectly grounded, as if its creator is revisiting this internal conflict long after initially passing through it. “Writing this record came at a time when my existential crisis reached a fever pitch and it was underscored by a constant sense of dread about where humanity as a whole was,” notes Olive. “I felt increasingly angry, scared, and disappointed. I also felt deeply and willfully misunderstood by both people who care about me and strangers. I wanted so badly to put myself and my life in a context that’s easy to explain and digest, but it’s impossible. You look at the past, you look at the future, you look at your ancestors, you look at yourself—I looked really hard and found so much richness in that and yet have no satisfying, neat answers. All I have is this collection of perspectives, disparate as they might be.”
With the record officially arriving on Friday, check out a full stream a day early below. You can also pre-order Cosmovisión here. Also, sure, why not—check out Half Gringa’s favorite songs about horses here.
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