Release Date: 1 January* 2009
Song Count: 13
Rating: 5.7/10
Description:
Switching back to the regularly scheduled reviews of personal requests, today's record comes from Brazilian rock band Pullovers and marks the first entry on the site sung fully in Portuguese, even in spite of not being the first one from the country itself. Pullovers initially started off making music in English in their inception, switching over to their native language an entire 10 years afterwards with this very album - a change that would stick around through their recent releases following Tudo Que Eu Sempre Sonhei (as well as a 14-year hiatus). This album remains to be the band's most successful work to this date in terms of recognition and number of plays of its tracks, likely due to its musically accessible nature and - from my best understanding, using personal limited knowledge of Romance languages as well as translation tools - lyrically connecting thematics.
The sound that greets the listener upon opening the album is a softer rock sound incorporates guitars, drums, bass and occasionally other instruments, most notably a contrabass at the start of the titular track opening it all, all to create a greater scape that sounds harmonious and widely appealing, treading lightly on every front and segment as to not end up slipping towards any directions that could deter from this aim. Together with the gentler vocals to match the set mood, the music seemingly smoothly glides around the ears of the listener to induce a sense of familiarity, comfort and light warmth with its careful yet simultaneously graceful progression.
That is mainly where the bright side of things cease to shine, however, as beyond the radiation of mildly positive emotions on the whole, the tracks appear to fall relatively stale after only a short amount of time, with little to differentiate them in terms of melodic approach and style. The initial charm of the sound is lost by the time only a couple of songs have rolled around, finding itself transforming into bearable yet unadventurous monotony that continues on its path well after, up until the very end of the 42-minute experience. With little to interrupt this pattern aside from shifts in time signatures at a couple of points and one interlude between tracks 8 and 10, it is practically safe to say that once one has heard one song from the record, the rest don't really offer enough that is different from the last to listen further in.
Though far from an unqualitative or poorly crafted album by any stretch of the imagination, Tudo Que Eu Sempre Sonhei didn't manage to mark much of a noticeable impression with its musical contents - in other words, while it's a fair record to put in the background, it ultimately doesn't stand for anything that hasn't been heard of prior, at least in terms of its sound. Nevertheless, the band has proven themselves to be one that is more than capable of producing something that encapsulates the pleasant mellowness as showcased in this album whilst also taking turns towards a more intriguing way of structuring songs and overall leading to songs that can reach to achieve more of a memorability factor than a simple fade into the sidelines. A valiant effort from Pullovers overall, even if one that ended up as far less impressive of a work than what could have possibly been.
(Thanks for the recommendation!)
[*taken from date as showcased on Spotify, as I searched around for an exact release date and couldn't find anything verifiable]