There was a year where “Águas De Março” was my top song on my Spotify Wrapped. I can’t say I’m too familiar with bossa nova generally, but I do love this record. There are hundreds of recordings of this song, but this version is captivating in a way that others, especially those in English (I’m looking at you, Art Garfunkel), are not. I’m a sucker for a duet, which I attribute to my early penchant for musical theatre, and Regina and Jobim make it seem effortless. There’s a moment in the latter half of the song where you can actually hear Regina laugh, which never fails to delight me.
You can hear the smiles in the recording, but there’s something even stronger in seeing them. The joy apparent in their faces is riveting; I can’t look away from the perfect performance unfolding before me.
Despite Elis Regina’s tragically short career, she cemented an incredible presence in the future of jazz with her imaginative recordings of classics. While her vocal performances seemed easy, lazy even, they were the product of her exacting standards. She was known affectionately as “Pinmentinha” (“Little Pepper”) for her perfectionistic and fiery qualities in the studio. She was outspoken, opinionated, confident, drawing attention from the government when she publicly criticized Brazil’s military rule. The country was rocked by her untimely death, when she was only 36. She remains an icon of Brazilian music.
“Águas De Março” leads directly into my favorite song from The Execution of All Things (2002), an indie rock record. I can’t say that I condone this kind of sonic whiplash as a rule, but I think here it works; the instrumental of “A Better Son/Daughter” comes in slow and soft. Jenny Lewis’ voice sings a melody like a march, so compressed it sounds like she’s on your car radio and you’re driving through a mountain range.
The song is about many things: weakness, failure, family, regret, innocence, getting up each day even though you’d rather die. I think of it often, because it feels like a joyful noise in the face of the daily injustice of continued existence. The world is hard and continues to get harder. When the song suddenly opens up, Lewis is singing:
And sometimes when you're on, you're really fucking on
And your friends, they sing along and they love you.
But the lows are so extreme that the good seems fucking cheap
And it teases you for weeks in its absence.
“Let’s Go Away for Awhile” is one of Brian Wilson’s favorite pieces he ever wrote. It was supposed to have lyrics, but Wilson decided it didn’t need them. I tend to agree with this conclusion; the soft vibraphone melody is cinematic in itself. There’s a twelve part string orchestra playing on it, along with the Wrecking Crew, a group of Los Angeles session players who played with Ike & Tina, Frank Sinatra, and the Carpenters, among others. This album was groundbreaking in many ways; it represents huge strides in the nascent field of concept albums, and was the first record to treat production as a series of artistic choices that shape the sound of a song. It basically invented art rock.
The last song I want to mention is number thirty four on Autostraddle’s definitive ranking of Fiona Apple songs by existential despair. I actually think it might be number two, right after the obvious first place winner, “Why Try to Change Me Now.” The author of this post has a very optimistic take on being in love with someone you can’t have, but I beg to differ; Fiona’s resigned tone speaks to the arduous rollercoaster one goes through of letting go, over and over. “I Know” ends with a broken promise, so much like the subject matter of the song:
While you try to find the lines to speak your mind
And pry it open, hoping for an encore
And if it gets too late for me to wait
For you to find you love me, and tell me so
It's okay
Don't need to say it
She never says, “I know.” The song just ends. It hurts every time, but I keep going back for more. It perfectly encompasses the longing, defeat, and stubborn spark. I’d like to personally say thank you, Fiona, for writing the best song about unrequited song ever made.