After eight years in the wilderness, Miguel is reborn in 'CAOS'

""The word that defines Miguel's state of mind right now is resolve. "My son, this album, my birthday," he tallies, pausing between bites at the subterranean New York restaurant we are lunching at. He turned 40 last Thursday. CAOS, his first album in eight years, arrived on the same day. The two seem linked, a threshold moment, as much a confrontation as a release. "It's like I'm feeling both things: a resolve and a finality.""

""To the ear, the album feels volcanic—a purge of memory, political angst, and personal pain. The past eight years of Miguel's life have been punctuated by rupture and reckoning. "I was running into the same walls again and again," he explains. "I'm a collector by nature. I collect emotions that never got dealt with, and they just become part of me. Some things needed to be fucking dealt with." His glinting laugh diffuses the weight of his words.""

""In a first for Miguel, the titular track is sung in Spanish. This was intentional. "It's meant to say, I know you thought you knew me, but I've changed," he grins. "There's tremendous pride in stepping into that." In 2019, Miguel released Te Lo Dije, an all-Spanish reissue of his 2017 album War & Leisure and sang in Spanish when he lent his voice to Disney's Coco, performing the Oscar-winning song "Remember Me"-but this is his first major studio release with Spanish at the forefront.""

Miguel enters a resolved creative phase with CAOS, his first studio album in eight years, released on his 40th birthday. The record channels grunge influences to purge memory, political anger, and personal pain. The past eight years included fatherhood, divorce, a shelved album, and repeated emotional patterns that demanded reckoning. The title CAOS (chaos) signals change and finality, and the lead track is sung in Spanish as a deliberate embrace of his Mexican heritage. The album foregrounds Spanish vocals while reflecting pride in cultural identity. The music serves as confrontation, catharsis, and a renewed artistic statement.

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