Oh My (Lost Songs 2006-2016)

Pajaro Sunrise is Yuri Mendez. Yuri Mendez is a prolific guy. Over the past ten years he's produced albums for other artists, translated a book from English to Spanish (Perfecting Sound Forever, by Greg Milner, the first edition of which sold out pretty quickly, while the second one is well on its way to do exactly the same), made music for large advertising campaigns (Vodafone, for example), soundtracked the poems of actor, comedian and poet Hovik Keuchkerian, and, most of all, wrote and recorded a large amount of songs, many of which featured on his four albums.

And yet, Oh My is his first album since Kulturkatzenjammer, which came out in the autumn of 2013. The release coincides with the tenth anniversary of Pajaro Sunrise's first album, and, as its subtitle explains, features a collection of songs that have not been released officially until now - twenty-two tracks that have been on the shelves for some time, but are now saved from oblivion.

Quite a few of those tunes are new, recorded by Yuri because, well, writing, playing and recording music is simply a basic need to the man. Others have different origins: "A Different Scene" is a song written for a beautiful animation made in 2012 for a UNICEF fundraising campaign; "Reel Of The World" was a bonus track on the Japanese edition of the first Pajaro Sunrise album; some titles are alternate takes on previously released songs featured on previous albums; and there's a handful of cover versions - tunes that have been important to him over the years, enough so that he decided to make them his: Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire", "Earth Angel" by The Penguins, The Beatles' "Girl", "Swingin' Party" by The Replacements, Johnny Cash's "Guess Things Happen That Way", Bill Withers' "Just The Two Of Us", and "All Ears" by The Whitest Boy Alive.

All in all, Oh My is a generous piece of work with 22 songs that deserved a release - a marvellous album that once again confirms that Yuri Mendez is one of the most talented musicians in Spain.