By Marty Dubecky

Print Managing Editor

Put away your sweaters and put on your sunglasses. The Texas three-piece, Khruangbin, ushered in the warmer weather with their new, sun-drenched album, A La Sala.

Back in 2020, Khruangbin delivered their highly anticipated collaboration EP, Texas Sun, with acclaimed singer Leon Bridges. This collaboration came after the release of two refreshing Khruangbin albums. After Texas Sun, the trio announced their release of full-length album Mordechai. 

However, Mordechai was not really what I was looking for as a next step with Khruangbin. And I would have to wait another four years for a redemption album. In between 2020 and 2024 (the release of A La Sala), the band toured religiously, released a second EP with Leon Bridges (Texas Moon) and bassist Laura Lee Ochoa had a baby. 

A new album was all I wanted from Khruangbin. I listened to everything else they had put out so many times. I bought tickets to their upcoming tour. I bought their records. So, when the first single for A La Sala, “A Love International” was released, I was ecstatic but very nervous. It is impossible not to love the band’s members, but after previous disappointment with Mordechai I wanted to stay in love with the music, too. I didn’t listen to any part of the single and instead waited for the full album in an anxious albeit excited fugue state.

On April 5, Khruangbin finally blessed us all with their fourth studio album A La Sala, and it is all of my dreams come true. The album feels, sounds and is warm–hot even. Their instruments play like they are made of the sun and dusk after a late summer day. Even after collaborating twice with Bridges, considered to be one of the leading voices in new soul/funk music today, the trio managed to make their most soulful and funky album yet. It is hazy at times, super tight, full of classic Khruangbin sounds and knows exactly what it’s doing front to back.`

The album opens with “Fifteen Fifty-Three” and immediately you are eased right back into the summer. In fact, it’s almost impossible to listen to the album without wearing sunglasses, or at least sunscreen. Tracks like “May Ninth” and “Todavia Viva” showcase the otherworldly drumming abilities of DJ Johnson. Like any other Khruangbin track, he plays like a metronome and always makes us want so much more. However, in A La Sala, we get to hear a little more of what Johnson can do around the set. It’s perfect.

Visionary guitarist Mark Speer stuns, once again, especially on tracks like “Ferolim de Felgueiras,” “Juegos y Nubes” and “Three From Two.” Most of Khruangbin’s songs need no vocals because Speer’s guitar sings for the band. He plays with a tone that sounds like sun rays and red sand dunes. Every song gives us something different, and every listen begs a new piece to focus on.

Laura Lee Ochoa coaxes us on through the entire album with her steady and chest-vibrating bass. If Speers plays like the sun, Ochoa plays like the lapping ocean waves. In “Pon Pón,” she gives us powerful and funky bass. In “A Love International,” her bass becomes the perfect accent mark for the rest of the band. 

The album features sneaky synth, some piano and the three classic Khruangbin instruments, but very little else. The album is stripped down, but it isn’t simple. Each song follows the next impeccably, but without ever sounding redundant or old. The band clearly is not out of ideas yet. A La Sala is the perfect album to tour this summer. It is also the perfect album to play loudly with your windows rolled down as you drive somewhere to do something out of a movie scene this summer. 

The closing track, “Les Petits Gris,” is unlike any other Khruangbin song. It is soft, incredibly gentle and only leaves us wanting more. The best end to one of the strongest albums of the year.