Critic's evaluation
At the beginning of the last two months of the year, the quartet PLUMA finally releases its new work. Produced since 2019 while the members of the group were borrowed to participate in Cantinho, João Marcos Bargas' EP, Revisitar now sees the light of day as an official part of the band's discography.
A humorous and slightly psychedelic interlude. Homemade in its aesthetic, aAaaaaaaaaAAAAAAA brings the unexpected, improvisation, and spontaneity of PLUMA in the form of an introductory medley of Atrasado, Passado. The track introduces itself with an intoxicating alternative new wave driven by Diego Vargas' keyboard. When Marina Reis comes onstage with her sweet, unassuming, MPB-like timbre, the song takes on a minimalism of twilight sensuality. With hints of R&B, the track still possesses, from the design provided by Lucas Teixeira's drums, a rhythmic base that shows itself as a prototype of baião. With a refrain whose sonority is an acid that recreates the ambiance of the seventies music scene, Atrasado, Passado brings in its lyricism a social analysis that borders on the unconscious by addressing nostalgia and the consequent insecurity for tomorrow. At the same time, there is the intrinsic questioning of whether nostalgia is not in itself a lament for not taking advantage of past moments.
The keyboard continues with its high and intoxicating notes. The drums bring a syncopated movement that manages to pin the listener's feet to the ground and Guilherme Cunha's bass, with its discreet but noticeable groove, adds to the melody and completes this sensually lunar environment. In fact, Transbordar ends up taking the position of a track that exhorts the feeling of love and passion from a romanticized lyricism brought by means of vocal overlays. It is this same lyrical content that works as if the listener were immersed in his own sentimental reverie.
R&B takes over with great presence in the introduction of the title track. With a unique swing, the song brings a daring format by bringing, after the introduction, the chorus. Contagious and lively, the song is accompanied by a lyricism that tells of an I-songwriter who lives on the margins of a nostalgia that borders on love dependency. The need for the other is the base of the iceberg that is the present song.
If in Transbordar the bass was discreet, in Não Há Movimento it is essential for the creation of the melodic soul aesthetic. It accompanies, with swing, a lyricism watered in perfect rhymes that, in essence, mask the structural simplicity that borders on the monosyllabic.
Contrary to what the last track claims, Revisitar is an EP full of movement. With swing brought about by both melody and vocal interpretations, it is even a work that combines soul, R&B, new wave, psychedelia, and baião in a cauldron that bubbles up aesthetic originality.
Among the stylistic references, it is still possible to find MPB with simple melodic classicisms. This sum of factors is possible to be perceived thanks to the production freedom and the mix signed by Hugo Silva. His work also highlights how polished the drums sound, making Teixeira's exercise the cherry on the cake in Revisitar.
Behold the visual stimulus. Created by João Nuci, the EP's cover art is a translation of the lyrics. Its clean tone background suggests lightness and, by its brightness, there is even an allusion to rebirth. On the other hand, the bright colors that adorn the writing of PLUMA bring in itself a latent tropicalism with great northeastern references.
Released on 11/12/2021 via Rockambole, Revisitar is an EP of intense movement. Romantic, it comes with swing and spontaneity that form the harmonic-melodic mark of PLUMA.
