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BRILLIANT GREEN GRASS.
It opens with a song by Tom Waits, the second album from this fresh, ever-changing voice coming from Brazil.
And how green, dewy, and crystal-clear with delicate sounds is the green grass of “Green Grass” in Cibelle's version.
First illuminated by the spotlight on the scene of “São Paulo Confessions”, Suba's album that I'm told is excellent but I have not yet had the pleasure to listen to, the young lady returns in 2006 after a solo debut, which seemed to have showcased her undeniable qualities, generating curiosity and expectations.
A FLASH IN A... VARIABLE SKY
But for those who, like me, almost ignored her existence, “The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves” represents what is called a bolt out of the blue.
A serene but variable sky, like the moods it holds and then pours out in this kaleidoscopic work. In the meticulous arrangements and the spectrum of colors unfolded, in the variety of sources it draws from and the names it involves, in the chameleonic attitude it demonstrates in both its composition and execution phases.
Cibelle modulates her voice, in English and Portuguese, with elegant flexibility, but she also plays the guitar, composes or revamps (releasing convincing and fascinating transformations) songs by Waits, Veloso, Tom Jobim, Ari Moraes.
She enlists collaborators such as fellow countrymen Apollo Nove, the Englishman Mike Lindsay, the French Yann Arnaud and Spleen, involving Devendra Banhart in a delightful, lazy but amused reinterpretation of Veloso's “London London”, with its crackling tail of the “mishmash” of voices and interferences.
EAR TO THE KALEIDOSCOPE.
Now, if I tell you that, by placing your ear to the sonic kaleidoscope (already somewhat declared by the cover) you find colored fragments of various forms and substances (shards of jazz, undulating bossa nova movements, particles of gentle electronics, crumbs of dreamy folk, dreamy shreds of tropical psychedelia) you'll think: “a unicorn, right?”
Right. We're almost fed up with so much eclecticism, saturated with patchworks without substance.
So let's do this: select track 7 (strange, but I often listen to track 7 first and it somehow reveals something to me about the album) and listen to what little Cibelle does in “Mad Man Song”, with what she chooses to use: her voice and some objects that produce sound, for example, teaspoons and cups.
At the end of this little exercise in style for voices (with featured Spleen) and tinklings, wait for the beginning of the next track: “Por Toda A Minha Vida”, the cover by Jobim.
Here, in addition to that voice that will resonate for quite a while, even after the song ends, somewhere in your suspicious mind like mine, there is little or nothing. A void of liquid sound that is almost not there.
If these two examples of light magic that can be achieved even in the extreme limitation of means aren't enough to give you an idea, follow that sound that's almost not there: it's the same one that, entering into “Flying High”, encounters others, delicate and “stylish”, layering slowly and giving body to a song.
Where Cibelle shows you how to sing a fascinating dream pop song: giving voice to her voice, opening curtains on different scenes, making them flow into each other.
All in 6 and a half minutes that, you'll notice, you enjoyed dreaming with her.
GOODBYE…
I've mentioned five pieces, I believe. But there are 14 on the album. And you'll skip none.
Because it is a beautiful journey. She and her voice (of sometimes a little ethereal sensuality) are the most desirable of companions, and the places she leads you to always smell good.
For instance now, in “Arrete La, Menina”, she and Seu Jorge have flung open a door, and you find yourself amidst lush tropical vegetation, acoustic with life and pulsating with melodic languor.
Then you slip down into the heart of bossa, to relax and unwind in the “refreshed” version of “Splendor”
And if you still haven't been caught, it would probably be useless to persist: we are towards the end of the album, and evidently, our tastes differ.
I instead let myself be accompanied, along the impalpable corridor of “Cajuína”, (another cover of Veloso) towards the exit. And I say goodbye.
Knowing that, during what remains of this scorching summer, we'll meet often.
And that it will still be lovely, during some cold winter evening, to savor once more the warm softness of her voice amid the fragile but solid architectures of sounds.
Happy listening.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Green Grass (04:01)
Lay your head where my heart used to be
Hold the earth above me
Lay down in the green grass
Remember when you loved me
Come closer don't be shy
Stand beneath a rainy sky
The moon is over the rise
Think of me as a train goes by
Clear the thistles and brambles
Whistle 'Didn't He Ramble'
Now there's a bubble of me
And it's floating in thee
Stand in the shade of me
Things are now made of me
The weather vane will say
It smells like rain today
God took the stars and he tossed them
Can't tell the birds from the blossoms
You'll never be free of me
He'll make a tree from me
Don't say good bye to me
Describe the sky to me
And if the sky falls, mark my words
We'll catch mocking birds
Lay your head where my heart used to be
Hold the earth above me
Lay down in the green grass
Remember when you loved me
Remember when you loved me
Remember when you loved me
03 Phoenix (05:43)
Help me, I'm falling down
Help me, I'm falling down the stair
Of my thoughts, my heart
Help, I'm slipping down
Help me
I'm slipping down, I feel my skin dry
Miles away they could be rebirth
They could become a cloud
They could be anyhow
Just a small portion of the ocean, soâ ¦
Give me something softer cautionly (?)
Give me some feathers so that I can stop it and glide
And glide up
Like a little birds and glide up
Like an eagle
With gigantic wings
Master the winds of change
Master the winds
Reborn again
Like a phoenix
So help me
Help me, I'm gonna fly
Help me
Help me, I'm gonna fly so high
Like a phoenix
Born again like a phoenix
Born again like a phoenix
Born again
05 City People (04:20)
city people down the street
dressed in black
dressed in black
and foreheads weep under the burning sun
smiles rising as they come out
foreheads weep under the pointing time
smiles rising as they come out the buildings for the winters tight laid dream
and I play dream
city people dressed in black
walking down with lonely faces
show me how
my life embraces me under the sun, under the sun
and guide me to other places
that all the places, all the places feel
like memory
i'm walking randomly kicking verses that start where I see
i write and talk checking the sky and the height of
people in a black suit
people walking down the street
they seem to notice me riding high on my dreams
city people down the streets dressed in black
and the foreheads weep under the company's sun that embraces me
smiles rising as they come out the buldings for the wind
as they daydream, as they play dream, as they play dream, as they play dream
06 Minha Neguinha (04:06)
Ã" minha linda, minha neguinha
O meu café ficou tão sozinho
Os meninos que passam
E olhos sem ter pra quem mostrar
Ã" minha linda, minha neguinha
Histórias que eu conto no vento
Eu me sento aqui pra ladainha
Eu me sento aqui avoadinha
Eu guardo no bolso
Eu guardo no bolso as histórias da Dona Sinhá
Mas me falta tu mesmo
E teu jeito de me contar
E eu guardo no bolso
Eu guardo no bolso da Dona Sinhá
Histórias que tu me traz
E as flores começam a girar
O sol se põe na pracinha
E eu me sentei cantando sozinha
O sol se põe lá na pracinha
E eu me sentei sonhando neste mar
O sol se põe lá na pracinha
E eu me sentei cantando sozinha
Eu guardo no bolso
Eu guardo no bolso as histórias da Dona Sinhá
Mas me falta tu mesmo
E teu jeito de me contar
Eu guardo no bolso
Eu guardo no bolso da Dona Sinhá
Histórias que tu me traz
E as flores começam a girar
07 Mad Man Song (04:35)
He likes sipping his tea
Slowly from the tip of the tea pot
From the tip when the pot is hot
When he's not lonely...
I'm lonely not, he has it his peers
I'm dancing around hands and
He sheds some tears
When she's not there
He's quiet he is mad man
He's quiet without she mad man
mad man
Le lourd chagrin d'un coeur fragile et fou
D'extases va t'il me rendre souple
Combler le vide, tenir le coup
Attendant une nouvelle aurore sentimentale
M'abreuve de ce liquide à la couleur pale
Mes verres à vin se noient dans ma verveine
S'use mon latin à perdre haleine
Mad man walking down a string
Mad man walking down a string
Mad man walking down a string
Mad man walking down a string with reality
Mad man walking down a string
Mad man walking down a string with reality
Mad man walking down a string
Mad man walking down a string with reality
Mad man walking down her skin
The lady with the tea pot taking him within
He's going crazy with this long long
there walking down the street
With this flower shirt, his loneliness and his thirst for tea
Mad man walking down a string
Mad man walking down a string
Mad man walking down a string
Mad man walking down a string with reality
Mad man walking down a string
Mad man walking down a string with reality
Mad man walking down a string
Mad man walking down a string with reality
09 Flying High (06:27)
I need to tell someone
How I am feeling
Moving my silence down
I don't feel ?no middle end?
Not a bit, just standing still
It's just this feeling course
This life
This life
This life I am feeling
This life
This life
This life I am feeling
So many good timesâ ¦
Seems like I'm falling
With this strangest feeling inside
This life
This life
This life I am feeling
This life
This life
This life I am feeling
There's so much beauty in the simple things
There's so much light we ???
I feel like I'm flying
I am flying in my dreams
I'm flying
Good times, good times
I'm flying
So many good timesâ ¦
I'm flying
So many good timesâ ¦
I feel like I'm flyingâ ¦
I'm flying
11 Esplendor (03:29)
CaÃa uma chuva fina
Em forma de confissão
E eu, solidão
Sou como a folha de outono
Que sem dono
Navegando chega aqui
Pra lhe dizer que o abandono
Já vai chegando ao fim
E eu, solidão
Só falta agora o teu sorriso
Um aviso
Que a luz do sol está por vir
E se você me vir vagando
Sem razão
Não vá pensar que o desengano
Mora no meu coração
Há muito tempo já se foi
A estação que vem depois
Descortina todo o esplendor
CaÃa uma chuva fina
Em forma de confissão
E eu, solidão
Sou como a folha de outono
Que sem dono
Navegando chega aqui
Pra lhe dizer que o abandono
Já vai chegando ao fim
E eu, solidão
Só falta agora o teu sorriso
Um aviso
Que a luz do sol está por vir
E se você me vir vagando
Sem razão
Não vá pensar que o desengano
Mora no meu coração
Há muito tempo já se foi
A estação que vem depois
Descortina todo o esplendor
CaÃa uma chuva fina...
14 Cajuína (04:03)
Existirmos, a que será que se destina
Pois quando tu me deste a rosa pequenina
Vi que és um homem lindo e que se acaso a sina
Do menino infeliz se nos ilumina
Tampouco turva-se a lágrima nordestina
Apenas a matéria vida era tão fina
E éramos olharmos na intacta retina
Da cajuína cristalina em Teresina
Existirmos, a que será que se destina
Pois quando tu me deste a rosa pequenina
Vi que és um homem lindo e que se acaso a sina
Do menino infeliz se nos ilumina
Tampouco turva-se a lágrima nordestina
Apenas a matéria vida era tão fina
E éramos olharmos na intacta retina
Da cajuína cristalina em Teresina
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