Preface
Very chill and laid-back. has few eye-opening moments. however pretty forgettable. the overal sound is lovable but loses its first touch as it goes on. loved the final song Les Petits Gris alongside the only song I had heard from them before, May Ninth.
Review
the sounds are so natural, vocals faded and only as accompaniment to the atmosphere that’s created by the instruments. there’s a very lush quality to the recording that just sounds so intimate, as if they’re playing next door and the sound is leaking through the walls.
May Ninth sounds so comforting, an audible caress on the forehead. Farolim de Felgueiras although a bridge track, sounds very nostalgic, a relic. like a tape you’d find in your grandparents basement from many years ago. it dances between the lines of wonder, discovery, and nostalgia; somehow rooted in an older time. it sounds like a “once upon a time” story from a future. I wonder how would someone feel like if they heard it back in the 40s or 50s.
Todavía Viva reminds me of The Marias, maybe because of the minimalist instrumentation, wet vocals, and a very fat base.
Nothing much significant after that, until the final track “Les Petits Gris”. listened to it multiple times, on different speeds. it sounds like a goodbye, properly placed at the end. it’s boring, and not even in a bad sense. it’s just two chords swinging back and forth, as if the narrator himself is frustrated, bored, and weary of this lament. time goes through him, he goes through times.
The piece is 4 minutes long but it feels like it’s shorter. at first it just plays, then you gradually notice it, you start paying attention, you like it, walk with it, sympathize with it, and before you know, your time’s up. before hearing all which the melody could’ve offered on your comfortable bed of two chords. I tried to listen to the album again but all of them felt worn out except this last one.
Maybe the listening experience itself is an analogy for the story. things end before you know, and nothing feels as wonderful as its first time; except endings.
Eulogies that will always be fresh retellings of the same story, like the one your grandmother knew and it still could make you fall sleep in a matter of minutes despite being the same old once upon a time.