"A minha menina"

Os Mutantes - A minha menina (1968)

Brazilian fusion pop!



Os Mutantes (The Mutants) were a Brazilian power trio. Two men, one woman, all three sang, all played instruments, and the band always had lots of guests on their albums. This is off of their first, eponymous album. Influenced by the pop vocals and psychedelic guitar sounds coming out of England and America, they fused it with the native dance rhythms of Brazil.

Lyrically it's a straight love song. She's his girl, he's her boy, and everything is right with the world. Musically the verses are very 60s pop. Vocals that harmonize tightly together over upbeat chords and fast drumming. The chorus has some fat fuzz effects on the guitar, giving us an angry edge to the song, but lyrically there is nothing to back up the anger. It's just a cool effect. The break is really interesting. There's some psychedelic guitars, some acoustic guitar licks, and some vocal noises that sound like hot and heavy breathing to me. Overall it's a fun pop song from a band I'd never heard of but that has fans. Indie act A Band of Bees (or The Bees if you're from the UK) got some early recognition covering this song in 2002 and Beck's 1998 album Mutation was named after the band. And in a hell of a coincidence, (because I just flipped to this song randomly as I usually do) Os Mutantes is apparently a favorite band of David Byrne - who was featured in yesterday's post.