The Singles Jukebox

Californian-Chilean electro-pop.

[Video][Website]
[7.43]

Juana Giaimo: It’s all in the music video: Francisca in hotel halls ready to spend the night awake, goofying around the city, but still knowing how to be seducing with those spasmodic body moves and intense glances at the camara. It’s different to the reassuring glance of Carly Rae Jepsen in “Run Away with Me”. Francisca instead looks at us like a hunter and a victim at the same time; observing and being conscious that she is observed too. Her voice is too cold and sententious, with words tangled up but delivered with such confidence as if she expects us to understand her insinuations. The music builds aroud her like a fortress: the beat introducing the chorus is an electro shock and the synths at the end of it burst straight out of her voice letting her grow. But behind that fortress, she can’t hide how yearnful she is. In the bridge, her voice gets out of her control while singing: “I shamelessly follow you to see if I can get a little bit of your crumbs that stop my hunger, that leave me warm”. And still, she knows that she is the one who could make you shudder — if you don’t believe me, just look at her final glance. 
[9]

Jonathan Bogart: That stuttering drum machine before the chorus explodes is right out of the Heaven 17 playbook, which itself was right out of the Motown playbook; but Valenzuela’s performance is neither doomily sardonic nor desperately joyful. Instead she plays the aristocrat taking all this swirling electronic luxury as her birthright, speaking in the third person about her own capacity for reducing strong men to jelly.
[9]

Natasha Genet Avery: A dark, foreboding take on “Knock On Wood” I didn’t even know I needed.
[7]

Tim de Reuse: Valenzuela’s pointed, syncopated delivery skips in little jagged patterns over the rolling synth triplets, and when she gets going it’s a very lovely one-two-three push and pull that forms the catchiest element of the track. The sound design is artificial and jittery, like it was all composed on a cheap keyboard, but, hey, it’s front and center and sincere enough to be stylish — I’m not totally sure that it’s quite as sexy as the lyrics would like it to be, though.
[7]

Peter Ryan: “Estremecer” falls somewhere near the middle in my Tajo Abierto rankings, but that’s only because the other tracks set the bar so high. Mediocrity usually isn’t packed with this many goodies — synth arpeggios that skitter like arcing power lines, haunted robot backing choirs, the triumphant “whoo!” that kicks off the outtro’s fevered panting — all in service of a grand seductive threat: “I knew very well how to make you shudder.” Valenzuela also knows how to write a climactic hook — see the bridge — and this could use more of a chorus. But for a most-likely cycle-closing victory lap sixth single, this is not bad at all.
[7]

Iain Mew: There’s a bit of an uneasy match between the dark gothic styling of bits of “Estremecer” and just how eagerly galloping it is, which Francisca Valenzuela doesn’t quite tie together in the way Susanne Sundfør might. Still, raw force isn’t a bad alternative and the punchy drums are a thrill of their own.
[6]

Alfred Soto: The dramatic synth string arrangement is a result of people studying the British Electric Foundation and The Knife, and Francisca Valenzuela stands at the center of an electronic storm. Indeed, I wanted a faster track.
[7]