Agridoce

Brazilian correspondent Luciane strikes again, with ‘cute folk’ duo Agridoce. Who cover Serge.

“Agridoce” is the debut album and name of the parallel project by Brazilian pop rock singer Pitty with her guitarist Martin Mendezz. It’s unplugged and explores different instruments and minimalistic sounds, textures, details, it’s quite the opposite of what’s she’s used to do with her über-popular solo work.

In “Agridoce,” which means bittersweet in Portuguese, guitars are out, acoustic guitar and piano are in, along with drawers with pillows inside and such other new musical instruments. The mood is introspective and folk-ish. The album was quickly nicknamed “fofolk” or “cute folk”.

Fan of Pitty or not, it’s an interesting album to listen, especially for those who never cared about her rock band or downright didn’t like her. This is something else. It shows nuances of her voice that one couldn’t hear before.
I certainly appreciated that, even more when it comes in French.
The first French surprise in the album is the song “Ne parle pas.” They didn’t name any French influences on the interviews they gave about the project. There are a lot of songs in English on the CD, so this one stood out.
And it turns out “Ne parle pas” is self-explanatory. Pitty said she can’t speak French, so this song is precisely about that, and her desire that she could. It’s about having a lot to say, but thinking it would all come out and sound much better if she could say it in french — ah, but haven’t we all been here before?… She said she finds French very musical and embracing. “If anyone who can speak French listens to this song, there’s already a mea culpa in it,” she joked on an interview.

Volontairement kidnappée
Délibérément traînée
Décidément arrachée
Pendant que tu coules entre mes jambes

I’d say is a good start for someone so raw and newly arrived. The piano does wonders for this song.
When I thought that was all, voilà, the second surprise comes as an iTunes bonus track: Pitty singing “La javanaise,” by Serge Gainsbourg. She made it absolutely bittersweet: her voice is mellow and sad, while the piano softens up the atmosphere of goodbye at the end of a love affair.

Covering Serge — and what she said above — could be a good indication that she’s been captured by french chansons. And maybe we’ll see more from her in the future. I’d gladly welcome that.

Agridoce – La javanaise