Review Summary: Sunny, melodic psychedelic rock from Maceió, Brazil. An album that's very easy to enjoy!
My wife and I flew from Recife to São Paulo last year. Shortly after departure, I was looking down at the Brazilian coastline when I saw a beautiful city, a white pearl on a peninsula jutting out southwards into the blueness of the Atlantic Ocean, basking in the brilliant sunlight of the Tropic of Capricorn. Being a clueless gringo, I had no idea what city it was, or even what state we were flying over. I decided to look it up when we landed, but in the event I forgot about it sometime during the Homeric voyage from Guarulhos airport to the centre of São Paulo.
To cut a long story short, turns out that city was Maceió, state capital of Alagoas and base to the psychedelic rock trio Jude, who have recently released their debut album, Ainda Que de Ouro e Metais. The music suits the city: it's definitely psychedelia of the sun-drenched variety, bursting with pop melodies, harmonies, shiny keys and crisp acoustic guitar. They're not afraid to drop in a pretty blistering trad-rock guitar solo too, most notably on the slow-burning Monte Azul (Blue Hill is the most accurate translation, although I prefer to translate it as Blue Mountain because in English Blue Hill sounds kinda lame), where guitar player / producer / multi-instrumentalist Reuel Albuquerque lets rip in a pleasingly bluesy fashion at the end of the song.
With all this talk of psychedelic rock and blues, one unversed in Brazilian music might assume that the band's influences are mostly non-Brazilian, but, although they're declared Beatles fans and I assume they enjoy the Beach Boys and late-60s West Coast psychedelia, Jude's primary influences are Brazilian. Named influences include Secos e Molhados, Clube da Esquina, and Os Mutantes, amongst others; maybe its because I know them better but I'm particularly hearing Mutantes, especially the sensibility of Arnaldo Baptista, who is referenced in title of one of the album highlights. The hallmarks of the king of Brazilian psychedelic music are all over this album, in the combination of sweet, sunshine-laden melodies with a sense of wistfulness and melancholy.
This is particularly true of Vá Ser Feliz Como o Arnaldo Baptista (Go Be Happy Like Arnaldo Baptista), which superficially presents a vision of freedom and escape. How you view the song's message depends on how happy you think Arnaldo Baptista is, of course... I've always had the impression that the man is pursued by an unshakeable sadness. Either way, I love the song's naive melody and its use of a similar piano style to Baptista's solo masterpiece, Lóki*. Other album highlights include the lovely acoustic ballad Pássaro Negro (Black Bird), the sha-la-la-ing pop confection Barco Azul (Blue Boat), and the opening title track, which features probably the best melodic songwriting of the album.
Everything on this album is good. My one quibble is that it feels a little front-loaded on early listens; all my current favourite songs are in the first half and I feel that the final quarter of the album, although still good, loses a little bit of momentum. I concede, however, that this may simply be because I haven't listened to the album enough.
Actually, I have another very small quibble. A couple of times they fade out in the middle of an awesome guitar solo. I want more guitar solo. Boo. So that's two quibbles. Quibble quibble, that's all I seem to do these days...
In any case, this is a very good album from an obviously talented trio. For any lover of classic psychedelic rock, particularly the melodic kind, this will be a joy.
*If you have not heard Lóki, you have not lived.
