Imagine it was the early 1980s and the Cure had 21st century mixing, a better drummer, and a brilliant, polyglot frontwoman who knew when to not sing; and now imagine something far better than that. You’ll approach something like what the Brazilian Girls have become with their sophomore album Talk to La Bomb.
Frontwoman Sabina Sciubba has a voice clarified and honed by years of singing jazz that enchants the listener without overwhelming bandmates Didi Gutman, Aaron Johnston, and Jesse Murphy. The band’s melodic and rhythmic synergy makes their music at once danceable and memorable, and worked to great effect on their eponymous debut. Melody dominated Brazilian Girls, but their live performances and their remix of Blossom Dearie’s “Just One of Those Things” on the third Verve Remixed compilation showcased an underlying yet relentlessly driving beat.
Talk to La Bomb is more effective than Brazilian Girls was at bringing this melodic but powerful energy to a studio album, perhaps because La Bomb's mood is darker and sharper. The first two tracks make us understand right away we’ve left behind the toe-tapping opiate quality of Brazilian Girls for something revolutionary.
“Jique”, the lead track and single, has an almost Red Shoes effect. It sparks a desire to get up and dance that outstrips a dirty amphetamine fury just enough to make you feel good. The calls to action don’t stop: as Sciubba claims in the third track ‘it’s all about us’ again and again, one stops knowing whether she’s talking about a couple or talking about humanity and is raised up with the sound.
What was notable on Brazilian Girls in the third track, “Sirènes de la fête,” is everywhere here: a mounting tension and frustration which is also a mounting power, even on quieter tracks like “Nicotine.” Loving or romantic sentiments are no less smoothly sexy for being expressed with pulsing volume.
Article comments
1 - Sébastien Richer
Kudos!