¡Ay!

¡Ay!
Studio album by
Lucrecia Dalt
Released14 October 2022 (2022-10-14)
Length34:27
LabelRVNG Intl.
Lucrecia Dalt chronology
No Era Sólida
(2020) 		¡Ay!
(2022) 		A Danger to Ourselves
(2025)

¡Ay! is a studio album by Lucrecia Dalt, a Colombian musician based in Berlin.[1] It was released on 14 October 2022 through RVNG Intl.[2] It received universal acclaim from critics.[2]

Background

¡Ay! is Lucrecia Dalt's first solo studio album since No Era Sólida (2020).[3] In between, she collaborated with Aaron Dilloway on Lucy & Aaron and composed the scores for The Seed and The Baby.[4] ¡Ay! tells the story of an alien named Preta who visits the planet Earth.[5] On the album, Dalt sings the lyrics in Spanish.[6] The album's title translates to "Oh!" in English.[7] Music videos were released for the songs "No Tiempo", "Atemporal", "Dicen", and "Enviada".[8]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic83/100[2]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[9]
Mojo[10]
Pitchfork8.6/10[11]
PopMatters8/10[12]
Uncut8/10[13]

According to the review aggregator Metacritic, ¡Ay! received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 83 out of 100 from 6 critic scores.[2]

Chris Richards of The Washington Post described the album as "a richly percussive, luxuriously spacious recording, with Dalt singing tenderly over various bolero-shaped rhythms, each song unspooling patiently, inviting you to notice its details."[14] Paul Simpson of AllMusic stated, "Much heavier on acoustic instrumentation than Dalt's previous albums, the record has a bit of a space-age exotica feel, giving the impression of an extraterrestrial's first encounters with Latin American music."[9] He added, "With ¡Ay!, Dalt succeeds at constructing and exploring an elaborate sound world that resembles a surreal reflection of her past."[9] Bernie Brooks of The Quietus commented that "the real strength of Dalt's work on ¡Ay! lies not in its strangeness but in how deftly it navigates and defines its relationship with the past, while doing something novel in the present, and charting out new paths forward into the future."[15]

Accolades

Year-end lists for ¡Ay!
Publication List Rank Ref.
Crack The Top 50 Albums of 2022
8
[16]
DJ Mag DJ Mag's Top Albums of 2022
—
[17]
The Fader The 50 Best Albums of 2022
19
[18]
NPR The 50 Best Albums of 2022
29
[19]
Pitchfork The 50 Best Albums of 2022
8
[20]
Rolling Stone The 100 Best Albums of 2022
64
[21]
The Wire The Wire's Releases of the Year 2022
1
[22]

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Lucrecia Dalt and Miguel Prado; all music is composed by Lucrecia Dalt.

¡Ay! track listing
No.TitleLength
1."No Tiempo"3:35
2."El Galatzó"3:32
3."Atemporal"3:07
4."Dicen"2:44
5."Contenida"4:31
6."La Desmesura"3:45
7."Gena"4:29
8."Bochinche"2:11
9."Enviada"4:03
10."Epílogo"2:28
Total length:34:27

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes.[23]

  • Lucrecia Dalt – arrangement, pre-mixing, album concept
  • Miguel Prado – album concept
  • Lina Allemano – trumpet
  • Edith Steyer – clarinet, flute
  • Nick Dunston – double bass
  • Isabel Rößler – double bass (2)
  • Alex Lázaro – percussion, backing vocals
  • Camille Mandoki – backing vocals
  • Alberto Lucendo – wind instruments recording, double bass (Nick Dunston) recording
  • Eric Brewer – percussion recording
  • Marta Salogni – mixing
  • Sarah Register – mastering
  • Anne Taegert – vinyl cut
  • Will Work for Food – artwork, design
  • Aina Climent – cover photography
  • Regina de Miguel – limited edition cover artwork

References

  1. ^ Simpson, Paul. "Lucrecia Dalt". AllMusic. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d "¡Ay! by Lucrecia Dalt". Metacritic. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  3. ^ Welsh, April Clare (23 June 2022). "Lucrecia Dalt announces new album, '¡Ay!' on RVNG Intl". DJ Mag. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  4. ^ Strauss, Matthew (22 June 2022). "Lucrecia Dalt Announces New Album ¡Ay!, Shares Video for New Song: Watch". Pitchfork. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  5. ^ Sherburne, Philip (5 October 2022). "Lucrecia Dalt: Alien Among Us". Pitchfork. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  6. ^ Eede, Christian (23 June 2022). "Lucrecia Dalt Details New Album, '¡Ay!'". The Quietus. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  7. ^ Gordon, Lewis (10 October 2022). "On '¡Ay!', the tropical music of Lucrecia Dalt's childhood becomes avant-garde sci-fi". NPR. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  8. ^ "Lucrecia Dalt - ¡Ay!". RVNG Intl. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  9. ^ a b c Simpson, Paul. "¡Ay! - Lucrecia Dalt". AllMusic. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  10. ^ Male, Andrew (February 2023). "Mojo Filter". Mojo: 87.
  11. ^ Herrera, Isabelia (13 October 2022). "Lucrecia Dalt: ¡Ay!". Pitchfork. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  12. ^ Miller, Bruce (18 October 2022). "Lucrecia Dalt Beckons Traditions Across Oceans on '¡Ay!'". PopMatters. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  13. ^ Pattison, Louis (November 2022). "New Albums". Uncut: 28.
  14. ^ Richards, Chris (20 October 2022). "Lucrecia Dalt's tiny sci-fi songs sound like a big deal". The Washington Post. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  15. ^ Brooks, Bernie (13 October 2022). "To Infinity And Beyond: ¡Ay! By Lucrecia Dalt Is A Stunning Sci-Fi Pop Opera". The Quietus. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  16. ^ "The Top 50 Albums of 2022". Crack. 1 December 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  17. ^ "DJ Mag's top albums of 2022". DJ Mag. 13 December 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  18. ^ "The 50 best albums of 2022". The Fader. 13 December 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  19. ^ "The 50 Best Albums of 2022 (30-21)". NPR. 12 December 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  20. ^ "The 50 Best Albums of 2022". Pitchfork. 6 December 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  21. ^ "The 100 Best Albums of 2022". Rolling Stone. 1 December 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  22. ^ "The Wire's Releases Of The Year 2022". The Wire. December 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  23. ^ "¡Ay! | Lucrecia Dalt". Bandcamp. Retrieved 5 July 2025.

Further reading

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