Arnaldo Antunes is little known in our part of the world. In Brazil, he is a star, at least among the middle classes in the country’s major cities. This tall, slender singer has built a world that slaloms between Brazilian popular music (MPB) and rock. He is a kind of Brazilian David Byrne, who, incidentally, invited Byrne to sing with him on two tracks on his latest album, Novo Mundo.
The former Talking Heads singer, a big fan of Brazilian music, and Arnaldo Antunes, a big fan of 1980s new wave, make the perfect pair. On “Body Corpo,” you can take a crash course in Portuguese, as the two sing exactly the same thing in both languages over edgy rock seasoned with MPB percussion.
Novo Mundo is the twentieth album by this singer with a deep voice. Now in his sixties, Antunes offers us an edgy album in which this “new world” causes him anxiety and panic. “Too much plastic and not enough water, all space is occupied by the police, we can no longer escape the algorithms,” he writes in the title track.
This album is an excellent introduction to Arnaldo Antunes’ masterful work. You don’t need to understand Portuguese to appreciate a more rock-oriented, urban take on Brazilian popular music. Although, thanks to artificial intelligence, translating the lyrics has now become easy.
Arnaldo Antunes is also a member of Tribalistas, a cult band in Brazil, founded in 2002. The trio sought to encapsulate a generation of Brazilian musicians, with Marisa Monte from Rio de Janeiro, Carlinhos Brown from Salvador de Bahia, and Antunes from the economic megacity of São Paulo. Despite releasing only two albums in twenty years, the group was a huge hit throughout South America.
It’s no surprise to hear Marisa Monte, who came to the FIJM in 2024, singing a duet with Antunes in a magnificent concert at the PDA, on a beautiful, poetic ballad about loneliness, light, constellations, explosions, and ancestry. Arnaldo Antunes is also known as a poet, and this song proves it.
While we wait for the next Tribalistas album, Novo Mundo is an excellent album of sophisticated popular music. Although pessimistic, Arnaldo Antunes also gives us a very rock song that tells us that “O Amor é a Droga Mais Forte” (Love is the strongest drug). There you have it. It’s been said.
