Juan Wauters, Eli Josef [inside]

Juan Wauters’ music feels guileless, even sometimes like music for children (“Disfruta la Fruta”). An Uruguay-born New Yorker, the songwriter’s lo-fi, bilingual, folk-inspired indie sound might transmit the innocence of, say, a Wes Anderson film, or the sweetness of Daniel Johnston. After roaming parts of Latin America to collaborate in native styles for his excellent 2019 LP La Onda de Juan Pablo, a reflection emerges on Wauters’ fifth LP, 2021’s Real Life Situations. Begun before the pandemic with tracks from as far back as 2016, RLS includes collaborations with nine artists, including Mac DeMarco and Homeshake, for another genre-hopping experiment; North American this time. —2115629