Brazilian Girls is one of those bands which I've heard of over the years, listened to once or twice, but never really formed a positive or negative opinion about. Yesterday I happened to click to watch this live performance from KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic, and I was charmed:
Brazilian Girls from http://kcrwmusicnews.vox.com/
The song didn't really grab me in the beginning - her whistling is quite impressive, but I let the song run in the background while I read some other blogs. But when she began the chorus, I stopped in my tracks. There's a sensory shift from the jaunty, plonky verse as the chorus quiets (ethereal, melancholy) then opens up (arching, angelic). "Do you like my accent..." she asks, singing foreign words, playing with pronunciations. Even her body language shifts; she closes her eyes in the denouement, reaches her hands skyward, calls out in that language, words I imagine are endearments, entreaties. I've listened to this song over and over, just for the reward of the chorus.
Then the spell is broken each time with those la-la's.
- You can see this performance and more over on the KCRW Music News blog.