Persona 749 – stereo girl
The moment you hear that your favorite musical artist has taken years of working on a project in order to sharpen it to perfection, you’ll know to abandon all chance of it being a success. This is not to say that musicians shouldn’t work really hard on their art. They just shouldn’t work on the same thing for too long. Indeed, good pop songs seem to either be child’s play to write or impossible. That’s, at least, the ones who regularly do it seem to suggest.
Sure, it’s everything else that the musicians consume and interact with in between writing the songs that shapes their vision of the world. Metal musicians who listen to showtunes won’t be able to hide it when they pick up their guitars, and neither will pop stars who’ve acquired a prog-rock collection. Everything else just seems to happen easily, or doesn’t at all.
You get the feeling that the fun, quirky “stereo girl” by Persona 749 always existed somewhere in the universe before the band made it beamed down to them. At its heart, this is a nerdy, fun pop song not unlike the music that DEVO or The Cars. But it’s not a sound stuck in the past. Good hooks are abundant here, but the production gives it a modern edge that should satisfy indie rock disco enthusiasts across the world.
Nelson Sobral – Must’ve Done Something Right
They used to say that musicians don’t actually learn the blues. They used to say that it’s pointless to go to music school, or to take lessons about which notes to play over which chord progression. I suppose that they’re right. Those who cannot feel the blues are blessed to escape some kind of unhappiness. But they have no way of cheating their way through a song.
But those that really feel the blues and who can summon up all of that ancient magic from their fingertips or from the back of their throats, also know the importance of days free from it. The fact is that there are few art forms which require as much of a blessing and a curse in equal measure. This is it! And those who understand it, know when to recognise a blessing.
Nelson Sobral knows the blues when he feels it. That’s why he also knows how to greet a sunny day. Twisting the title of a famous number performed, among others, by The Allman Brothers Band, Sobral plays a happy blues for “Must’ve Done Something Right.” How does that work exactly? Beyond the musical theory, allthat is required is a whole lot of soul, a desire to wash the clouds away and the ability, that Sobral possesses of creating magic when he touches that six-string.
