Critic's evaluation
In the last quarter of the year, Renato Medeiros decided to take an important step forward in his career with the release of A Curva Dos Dias, his debut album. Recorded mostly at the musician's home, the studio album sets out to narrate the natural unfoldings of life from the experiences they bring.
From the fog, notes of a numbing and hypnotic bucolic unfold, while the melody in the process of construction already communicates a strand that touches on a combination of roots rock and southern rock in the style of Creedence Clearwater Revival with the transcendental melancholy of Imitation Of Life, a single by R.E.M.. The curious thing is that this mixed landscape comes with fluidity and smoothness through the almost nauseating synergy of Lucas Gonçalves' bass, guitar and drums, while Livre matures into an invitingly sombre product from the bittersweet timbre of Renato Medeiros. Floral and with a reflective nostalgia, Livre brings the character's relationship with the mourning of the end of a long relationship, who still has to deal with a strange and uncomfortable sense of freedom that still doesn't match his emotional conformation. The most important thing about Livre is the protagonist's lack of shame in assuming that he is afraid of the future in the company of loneliness.
It comes with a happy and contagious joy, a happy novelty from A Curva Dos Dias. With a more open guitar riff, the contagiousness really comes into its own thanks to the softening of the drums. With a slightly raw essence and structured on an indie rock base, Pássaro has a bluesy solo mixed with hard rock touches. Still, what stands out is a numbing softness in whose landscape brings a summer sunset with a sky full of flocks of birds heading south. Using the figure of the bird as a representation of the metaphor of hope and guidance, Pássaro presents an individual steeped in the insecurity of despising his own ability to overcome the past, while trying to hear the voice of conscience indicating the direction of a future that belongs only to the protagonist. No wonder Pássaro is a work that emphasizes the search for belonging.
Your dawn is soft and warm. A comfort as cozy as lying under the covers watching the winter sky from your bedroom window. Contagious while promoting a bucolic aroma, the melody comes like a breeze carrying an instigation for behavioral change. A change that, with the sound of the mellotron, is accompanied by a psychedelic acidity that, as well as creating a simple harmonic similarity to that of É Preciso Saber Viver, a single by Titãs, gives it a curiously melancholic character. Honesto brings Medeiros under a reflective-dreamy essence that exudes, just like the impression of its beginning, the change in behavior that is now clear when it comes to the relationship with feelings. No more denying emotions. The assumption of the love that pulses from the chest. Honesto is simply the acceptance that there is affection for someone else and that, unlike before, you won't be allowed to snub the next chance to express this emotion.
The soft, sweet notes of the guitar drift through the room like the breeze of a spring evening, spreading the scent of flowers beyond the horizon. At this point, it's interesting to note how Medeiros and Gonçalves' concise, introspective duet manages to recreate the visceral, pleading energy of the chorus of Vapor Barato, a single by Waly Salomão and Jards Macalé. Minimalist and therefore structured mostly only between voices and guitar, James bears great resemblance to the melodic energy propagated in Dust In The Wind, a single by Kansas. Delicate, James has in the gentle insertion of Matheus Marques and Gonçalves' caxixi the element that gives the melody a politely more rational texture, which still has in the echoing guitar riff the construction of a nostalgic landscape of a distant time that still sounds like the shuttle between the rational and the imaginary world. This is how James, with his lyricism in English, brings the miserable reality of an individual who, lost in his own pride, needs to acquire humility to be able to ask for forgiveness and assume the need for help.
Its beginning comes as a gentle jolt. Carta Para Mim Mesmo is a dramatic interlude that draws heavily on the harmony of Queen's single We Are The Champions. Although with explosive outbursts through its mix of blues and alternative metal subtleties from the construction of the drum lines, the track has an indie rock base that serves as a touching bed for a plot in which the character takes on the intensity of the act of being an artist. The emotions are always exacerbated, the textures are always more prominent, the tears are always more liquid and fluid. Carta Para Mim Mesmo is nothing more than a monologue intended to conform and educate the protagonist's mind to understand that there is nothing wrong with exposing the feelings of the heart on a sheet of paper with no certain address, but in the name of art.
The melody is minimalist, sweet and delicate. Thanks to Gonçalves and Igor Bollos’ nylon-string guitar as the only instrument, the song has a simple texture, but it's not incapable of conveying emotion. Although Perto has a slightly funereal and tragic plot, the guitar softens the pain, while Medeiros uses his voice to deal with the mourning and take on a character of gratitude for life. It's interesting to realize that the guitar also manages to express hope and a lively glow that overflows from Medeiros due to his sudden desire for intensity.
Acidic and with mixed refinements of a nauseating acidity, the melody is presented in such a way as to create a fabulous ambience from the way the guitar is pronounced. With its striking bass, the flavor of the track is made intoxicating by the synthesizer sound of Medeiros and Dennis Guedes, but what makes the sound touching is the cello. Inserted by Giovanna Airoldi, the instrument gives Um Lugar a dramatic and slightly mournful character, just like the one present in O Astronauta De Mármore, a single by Nenhum De Nós. Managing to convey a sense of epic, Um Lugar seems to be a direct continuation of Perto, but with a generously darker energy, as it takes a slightly more drastic view of death.
Linear and intoxicating in its indie rock melody with boomy bass notes, the melody now accompanies Medeiros in a more echoey and anasalated lyrical interpretation that brings back memories of Rita Lee's singing. Epic in its psychedelic-new wave harmonic crescendo, Vinheta Tóxica offers a glimpse into addiction to pain. In addition, the track brings up the individual's inability to sublimate, showing a severe comfort in both the absence of self-worth and insecurity, qualities that can be embedded in the unconscious. From the tone used by Medeiros, Vinheta Tóxica consists of empty questions that, imbued in torpor, don't necessarily want to be answered because they want to maintain the falsely comforting doldrums.
Cheerful, the melody, right at its dawn, bears great energetic-aesthetic familiarity with that of Lança Perfume, a single by Rita Lee. Promoting a kind of rock with a brazilian essence from the 80s, Madre De Dios has a surprising, smiling guitar solo and a bass that borders on progressive. Taking on a metallic air that enhances its harmony and melody, Madre De Dios also surprises with its swinging shrieks from Gabriel Stern's saxophone, while its lyricism matures as a kind of discovery of the character in relation to faith. A testament to trust in what cannot be seen, but rather believed.
Soft, gentle, delicate, nostalgic and melancholic. With its lovely subtlety, the melody manages to envelop the listener in its arms, while offering them affection and protection. Creating aesthetic familiarities with those of songs like Flower Power, a Greta Van Fleet track, and Resposta, a Skank single, Eu Vou Continuar brings refinements of the character's disappointment with himself. Showing himself to be lifeless and without any trace of brilliance, he nevertheless becomes aware of his condition and draws strength from it to try to overcome the enigmatic pain in his heart. Through the hope of better days, Eu Vou Continuar is still embraced by a psychedelic acidity coming from the hammond that cooperates with the need to escape the comfort zone of depression. "Eu sei que a vida é boa!" the character cries out, unconsciously intending to internalize this phrase to the point where he can change his emotional energy.
It's as delicate a work as a diamond. After all, just like this precious stone, its fragility is such that, at any impact, it can shatter. A Curva Dos Dias is an album that presents an individual in a deep process of self-knowledge and assimilation of his emotions.
Ranging from the torpor of pleasure to the stabbing pain of loneliness, the album has a not-so-clear autobiographical aroma, but it is noticeable between the lyrical and melodic lines. Dealing with the search for belonging, the escape from the reality of feeling alone, the illnesses of the heart and the suffering of the soul, the album presents a body in the process of being polished in the world of emotions.
Although at times the character is immersed in a deep state of depression, A Curva Dos Dias, as its name suggests, shows moments when the protagonist regains consciousness and strength. And it is during these periods that he relies on the honest acceptance of faith and the proclamation of a kind of mantra that helps his spirit change energy and see the world differently.
From mourning itself to his relationship with death, the character shows himself in constant trials that confront his most fragile self. After all, it's these moments that call for imposing attitudes that can define whether a person has a sense of self-confidence or remains on the fringes of emotional strength. And so the album presents not just an unstable individual, but someone who is largely insecure and lacking in self-worth.
In his eagerness to show his character's path to behavioral change, A Curva Dos Dias has Renato Medeiros himself as the figure capable of transforming emotion into melody. Through his mixing activity, Medeiros made the album sound multiple and with diverse textures that walk through indie rock, alternative metal, new wave, progressive, psychedelia, roots rock and southern rock as a way of illustrating the comings and goings of the protagonist's emotional equalization.
Rounding off the technical part is the cover artwork. Signed by Camilla Baratucci, the work features a scenario that is very reminiscent of the one captured by Brian Cannon in The Masterplan, an Oasis album. It is hypnotic and brings a sense of depth that very much embodies the Renaissance aesthetic, while bringing a sense of the search for overcoming, resignification and, above all, a kind of redemption.
Independently released on 11/09/2023, A Curva Dos Dias is the simple search for self-knowledge and belonging of a character who is overflowing with suffering because he doesn't know how to deal with and accept his emotions. The conquest of gratitude and the capacity for self-worth are qualities that can change the axis of the protagonist's life, if he allows himself to understand his feelings. If he allows himself to understand that life is beautiful, even if his heart feels otherwise.
