Most Americans had probably never heard of Wasilla, Alaska until Sarah Palin was picked as John McCain’s running mate. Music fans though had other reasons to know it. Wasilla is the home town of “Portugal. The Man” a relatively young but prolific indie band.
There are a number of things to like about this group.
- They have real songwriting talent. The music is diverse and multi-layered, featuring atypical chord patterns and changing rhythms. The vocal melodies are similarly diverse with parts of songs using slow phrasing and then quickly changing to measures filled with almost as many words as you would expect from a rap song. Yet, it all flows together naturally. It is not at all jarring in the way the Fiery Furnaces go out of their way to be.
- The lead singer’s voice is naturally androgynous. When I first bought a CD, I fully expected to see a female singer listed on some of the songs. But, I was wrong. The higher register lead vocals are from John Baldwin Gourley.
- They are prolific; having released full length CD’s every year since 2006.
- They are evolving; each CD has somewhat different styles.
- They are consistent. I have very finicky music tastes and as I have gotten older, I am much quicker on the trigger to skip songs. I do not feel a need to do that with Portugal. It is easy to listen to their CD’s all the way through.
- They have interesting artwork and packaging for their CDs. If you only buy the downloads, then you are missing out on something that they clearly feel is important enough to spend effort on.
There is one thing to potentially not like about the band: their lyrics are almost indecipherable. I have wanted to write about them before but I struggled to feel that I could do so with confidence. Here are four songs I like, one from each of their CD’s.
How the Leopard Got Its Spots
This is one of my favorite songs. It is the opener on their debut album and I have had friends take notice of it in the car when it came on. They too recognize that something musically richer is here. The intermixing of downward scales and upward scales is only the beginning of how diverse this song is.
I have heard it described that the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson tried to put everything he knew into the song Good Vibrations, almost as an unintended capstone to the band. This song has a similar feel except... this is the first song on their first album. These guys threw down a gauntlet and said, "We start from here." All that being said, interpeting the lyrics is tough.
Palms are fitted black and finely tuned
To triggers that cause bodies that tremble
But this mud looks shallow from the beach
When we hide behind such ugly faces
And the dark eyed woman lifts her head
"Why do we hide behind such ugly faces?"
Child bearing games from the streets down to the shores
They’re playing as waterways open in an obscene gaping gasp.
But this mud looks shallow from the beach
When we hide behind such ugly faces
And the dark eyed woman lifts her head
"Why do we hide behind such ugly faces?"
"Rally all your men there is work to be done"
Still we don't have the time for speaking out of place
Because he won't come down
He won’t come down
He won't come down
When lengths of snakes match each silent syllable
"With eyes like these"
Face glistening with suspense of a scalpel blade,
Clockwork calculating surgical precision.
Palms are fitted black and finely tuned
To stomachs that swallowed whole that bayou.
My conclusion on this one is that it about a murder and is describing the acts that demonstrate the evil of the criminal. The title is a play on the phrase “A leopard can’t change his spots.” In this case, it explains how he got them.
Shade
This is the first song by Portugal I ever heard. I still find the rhythm and melody of the vocals dreamily fascinating. I love how the vocals are layered together. But then, after the first chorus, there is only one voice for a line or two and it seems all the more interesting because of the absence of the others.
Claims, they crawled from those clouds,
Over mountains cried
Into the streams where they ran the length of
Past and time that called out
With their hands beside you as all the people shouted
Up to the "northern" territories
My, they glowed like a bug burning at the ends of
Shade covered crowns
Whose only words were
Wicked mumbles shake unstable manners
Brought these thoughts about you
Lights up like flies and ants that dip about and aim to
To swallow us up like the bread baked gums
Now I remain glowing at the ends
I remain glowing at the ends
It's because it's you they've became
Shade drifts around, southern where the sheets
Are growing ash and steeple factories
Old boy you'll never know just what they
Think, it never finds you
Cheap work finding pockets only when we're aimed to
To swallow them up like the bread baked gums
Now I remain glowing at the ends
I remain glowing at the ends
It's because it's you they've became
These lights were waves that spilled through my space (in the plains)
Where no one knows if they'll ever need again (I want to)
These lights were waves that spilled through my space (in the plains)
Where no one knows if they'll ever need again (I want to)
(come and get and take me home)
What does this mean? I hardly even know where to start. Some research on the web found someone else’s guess that it has something to do with prospectors coming to Alaska looking for gold and staying to form the population. I will recommend to Kerry that an OSer get an Editor’s Pick if they can figure this out.
I do like the chorus where the observation "I remain glowing at the ends" seemingly receives an answer of "It's because it's you they've become." It speaks of a simultaneous desire to reach up as an individual while needing to recognize that we each are only here because of those who came before.
Salt
I like how this song takes a simple chord structure and creates a feeling of falling (the Bminor, A, G part) to seemingly being caught and raised up (the D chord). It also always fools me into thinking the song is in slow 12/8 time only to have the drummer come in clearly playing a more moderate 4/4. The falling and rising back up fit with the opening lyrics of being weighed down and out of words but seeing a potential upward path through “the way.” The song ends with some beautiful layering that strikes a note of transcendence. But, we are left with some ambiguity as a second voice still observes, “This can’t be all we have to wait.”
My legs are all buried in salt, the way
As my lips move out all of my words, the way
But this can't be all that we have to wait
Pressing pulling this pains, the way
They listen and listen for all the way
But this can't be all that we have to wait
Do you hear the wind child?
Calling out the salt plains
Listen to the wind child
Its calling, calling out your name
I was born of sun beams
Warming up our limbs
Born up from the earth, child
ahhhhh ahh
No I'll never come back down, never come down from here
But this can't be all that we have to wait
Lovers in Love
This song is one you would likely not guess is Portugal if you heard it in another setting. It’s like a whirling dervish of psychedelic electronica with lyrics that seem to be about heartbreak but are filled with such repetition of “love” and “higher” that we could easily be in a circa-1970 hippie off-Broadway show. In the end, I think the song does speak to a belief in a true love that should be distinguished from the drug-like effects of being in love. But, given the exuberance of the music, an endless occurrence of falling in love might be a good consolation prize.
Crawl from the fire
Into the pan
What we don't need
Hell will demand
Higher, higher, higher, higher
Higher, higher, higher, higher
I'm not in need
Therefore don't demand
What hell can sell you
I can't defend
Higher, higher, higher, higher
Higher, higher, higher, higher
And if another lover
Takes their love away from you
Be careful with your mind
What you're bound to do
Lovers in love
Lovers in love
Love, love, love, love, love
Lovers loving love just like these lovers are loving in love
Lovers loving love just like these lovers are loving in love
And if another lover
Takes their love away from you
Be careful with your mind
What you're bound to do
Lovers in love
Lovers in love
Lovers in love
Lovers in love
And if we make it, I'll come back
And if we make it, I'll come back
Lovers loving love just like these lovers are loving in love
Lovers loving love just like these lovers are loving in love
Lovers in love (higher, higher, higher)
Lovers in love (higher, higher, higher)
Lovers in love (higher, higher, higher)
Lovers in love (higher, higher, higher)
In Answer to the Titular Question…
Where does all this transcendent music take us? I’m not sure. My puzzle-solving side would normally be frustrated. But, there seems to be an underlying joy here so maybe the journey is the thing. It’s certainly a trip to travel from Wasilla to Portugal, man.
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E. Magill
T.S.
old new lefty
rwnutjob
Max Frank
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Salon.com
Comments
Well written intro to the band. Thanks.
Here's a link to an album review I wrote this past summer:
http://open.salon.com/blog/mjwycha/2009/08/11/portugal_the_man_the_satanic_satanist_album_review
Stellaa, I'm glad to be sharing a music education with you. Now if I could just get you to understand how free markets work to our benefit and not our detriment. :-)