Saudade is a Portuguese word which means (approximately) nostalgic longing. This definition does sort of kill the romance behind the term, but it's hard to describe in English. It's not just nostalgia. It can be longing for a loved one or place. It can be the melancholy accompanying the realization that you will never know everything the world has to offer. It looks back at what has been and forward at what may never be. And that pretty much sums up the mood (and is the title) of today's Best Song Ever: Saudade by Love and Rockets.
Love and Rockets (named after the Hernandez brothers comic series) are better known for their heavy and gothic music. Their first album Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven however (from which this song was taken) explored more psychedelic territories and soundscapes. Saudade, appropriately, closed the album.
There is something quietly final, even apocalyptic, about the song- like the empty ruins of a city. Drenched in echo, acoustic guitars gently jangle debris across the streets. Far off in the distance drum girders crack and tumble off the rusted skeleton of skyscrapers. Liquid bass pours down through the cracks and crevices into parched dirt. Heart strings push and pull against distorted electric squalls and murmurs before quietly dying into the ghostly call of a radio broadcast.
Didn't now that this music was call Saudade, but i do now that it touch my soul deeply, and i'm portuguese, so you've got it.
ReplyDeleteIt's been years since you posted this. I am at this moment listening to Saudade, and I agree with you 100%. It does touch the soul.
DeleteLontro you are an asshole! This song is perfect excluding perhaps the constant sound we heard (electronic battery?) Throughout the music!
ReplyDelete