True was my obsession with Isabella Rodriquez’s 2017 single “Oh My Goy”, which, upon re-listen, still sounds as perfect to me as ever. Since then, the Honduran artist, who currently lives in Montreal, has assumed the name Isabella LoveStory and it’s with this moniker that she’s quietly taking over Soundcloud with her debut self-released album, Juguete.
“Juguete” translates as “toy”, and, wistfully, coyly, catchily, fantastically, Isabella constructs her particularly ornate pop force into spires that twirl as delicately and meticulously as those of an ancient doll house.
The album opens with a kind of mythic soliloquy, issued forth from a wonky boudoir, before Isabella’s voice soars glimmers in on some of the sparkles left over from a twinkling music box. Her singing, spoken word, and rap, in both Spanish and English, carry the remainder of the album as it moves through moments of trap, R&B, and reggaeton. At times, she also gestures towards the power pop love ballads of ’90s yore, like in “me gustas”, where she turns the emphatic trills of queens like Mariah and Whitney into an ironically sweet wheeze.
Cut a spool of ribbon open and its guts stream Juguete. Click in to the player to keep this gem circulating and then into each song to see the lyrics to sing along.
More about: Drumloop, Isabella LoveStory
