Fell In Love With The City

🔀 SS #120 • Silva, Another Sky, Phoenix, Beck, and Ruby Okoro.

May 12, 2024

brazilian / pop • 13 songs • 41 minutes

Have you ever revisited an album that you haven’t really enjoyed in the first place, only to fall in love with it many years later?

I have been in love with Silva’s music even before he dropped his first album, through attending and photographing some of his first small and intimate concerts back when I was living in São Paulo more than a decade ago. From there, it was easy for me to dive deeper with each consecutive release, and his first 3 albums (Claridão, Vista Pro Mar, and Júpiter) were an incredible trilogy, each with its own flavor without ever losing his identity. But with Brasileiro (2018), things took a big turn and the magic was lost, at least for me. Leaving the electronic experimentations a bit to the side, Silva started to embark on a journey through more regional instrumentation and themes, which for me sounded (at first) much more flat and uninteresting, if compared to what he was doing before.

With the exception of a couple of tracks that I truly loved, I ended up never really connecting with the rest of the album. But that all changed recently when some of the songs came suggested to me while shuffling through my library, and it was almost like reconnecting with an old friend and catching up with everything that happened since then. That was enough for me to put the whole album to spin and realize I was missing a great entry on his discography. Brasileiro is still far from being my favorite of his albums, but it sure has grown into a special place within my library.

Listen to the album on your platform of choice

🎶 » Fell in Love with the City, by Another Sky

The song that gives name to this issue comes from London-based indie rock band Another Sky, whose ethereal and powerful vocals from singer Catrin Vincent instantly grabbed my attention, right after I got instantly hypnotized by the cool album cover where the song came from.

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🎶 » Odyssey, by Phoenix & Beck

Beck and Phoenix is one of those combinations that you never thought about it but it works so well that it ends up being so obvious. Released shortly after Phoenix's great album Alpha Zulu (2022), Odyssey is a colorful indie-pop single that brings out the best of both artists and served also to announce their (then upcoming) co-headlining tour.

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⚡️ Visual Inspiration

Ruby Okoro is a self-taught Nigerian visual artist living in Lagos, Nigeria, using photography as a way to translate his experiences and channel his creative visions. Check out his Instagram for more. Here are some favorites:

🤩 » Did you find anything inspiring in this issue, have something to share with me, or just feel like saying hello? Reply or leave a comment and let's start a conversation!