Afro-Spanish Singer Buika Bares All in "El Ultimo Trago"

“In El Ultimo Trago, Buika celebrates all the incarnations of passion, from the most glowing to the darkest. She does so in a thrilling and original way,” writes director Pedro Almodovar in the liner notes of Spanish songstress Concha Buika’s latest album, an emotional tribute to 90-year-old Chavela Vargas, an iconic Mexican singer known for her raw, raspy voice and heart-wrenching performances.

Accompanied by Afro-Cuban pianist Chucho Valdes, Buika reinterprets the hurt and solitude that Vargas so often embraced in 13 tracks that were recorded during 11 intense hours in Havana. The 37-year-old, who is of Guinean descent, channeled her own demons to arrive at the core of the music. “I have my own open wound . . . facing that pain has helped me a lot,” she recently told a newspaper in Madrid. “Singing is a way of talking.”

In the CD, which encompasses flamenco, jazz, rumba and other genres, Buika doesn’t just sing. She bares her soul as she deals with love lost in songs like “Sombras” and “El Andariego” and learning to forget in such tracks as “En El Último Trago” and “Se Me Hizo Fácil.” The result is profound, perhaps even overwhelming.

Warning: After listening to this album, you may find yourself compelled to call that one person whose memory still plagues you. As Almodovar writes, “one is determined to keep making the same mistakes because there are no rules, common sense, caution or regret in passion.”