Gabriel Moreno, origami rats and sellotaped hearts

I confess to a real phobia of rodents so, when I first came across an album called ‘The Year of the Rat,’ its cover emblazoned with an image of a rat – albeit an origami rat – I had my doubts. But Gabriel Moreno’s fourth album, released earlier this year, won me over with its charm and inventiveness. Moreno is a Gibraltarian poet and singer-songwriter who also happens to be Gibraltar’s Cultural Ambassador for 2022 and his music has been compared to Leonard Cohen, Neil Diamond and Georges Brassens. Like Cohen, Moreno has published several books of poetry, in both English and Spanish. And, like Cohen, he favours a nylon-stringed guitar and a deep voice delivering poetic lyrics. On some tracks, like ‘When the City Wakes Up,’ he even uses a chorus of female backing singers.

Even before considering the lyrics, I was intrigued by some of the songs titles – ‘Dance in an Empty Field,’ ‘Sellotape My Heart.’ But the lyrics are remarkable; they’re full of delightful surprises but are never awkward or overblown. There is a danger – with poets who are also songwriters – that their song lyrics are no more than poems set to redundant music, that the words have more weight than the music, as if the text could do its job on its own without the need for a musical accompaniment. Ideally, the music should be integral to the lyrics, and vice versa – otherwise it’s not songwriting but mere words-set-to-music. Moreno understand this. Being both a poet and a songwriter, he makes the words and music work perfectly together.

There’s great humour too. ‘Solitude’ addresses Solitude personified:

“...Solitude, I am sick and tired of being alone with you, surely things must change...” and “...O solitude you charlatan, you made porridge with our brains...”

‘Feel Like Dancing’ is an alternative take on the countless pop songs that express the desire to get on the dance floor; Moreno’s is a tribute to the introvert’s joy in dancing alone at home:

“I feel like dancing, alone in my room, / here I am the genius of mirrors and cells, / I am building a dance floor with my favourite books, / I am closing the window to my worldly concerns...” while ‘Everyday News’ is a beautiful, piano-based song, which has the lullaby-quality of some of Tom Waits’ early heart-breaking songs. Moreno’s music, though, has an unmistakably European feel, with its lyrics referencing Baudelaire and Yeats and a musical landscape that reminds me of the best of Peter Sarstedt.

On the off chance, I searched to see if Moreno might be touring the UK anytime soon. It turns out he’s appearing at several festivals this summer including the Purbeck Valley Folk Festival in Dorset. There he’ll be playing on Sunday 21 August with his band The Quivering Poets (who are described as “a troupe of highly acclaimed musicians from the London and Barcelona Alternative Folk scene.”) He’s also taking part in a Songwriters’ Circle on the Sunday morning with Steve Knightley and Kathryn Williams. So, I’ve gone ahead and booked a ticket for Purbeck. I’m really looking forward to seeing this unique artist perform live.