A DIVINA COMÉDIA OU ANDO MEIO DESLIGADO

This is the masterpiece of Mutantes (and, in my opinion, of Brazilian Rock). This is a brilliant album already on its cover, which portrays Dante and Virgílio no Inferno; in turn, the back cover generated controversy, with Rita Lee (vocals and percussion) lying half naked in a bed between the brothers Arnaldo Baptista (keyboards and vocals) and Sérgio Dias (guitar and vocals). This disc represents the rupture of the band with Tropicália, with which it was associated in the two previous albums; the entry of two members weighed in on this, which increased the rock footprint: bassist Arnolpho Lima Filho, a.k.a. Liminha (who in the following decade would become one of the most sought after producers of national pop/rock, especially for his records with the Titans), and drummer Ronaldo Paes Leme, a.k.a. Dinho. The most famous song - and a strong candidate for the best composition of the Mutantes - is "Ando Meio Desligado". The instrumental part, especially the bass and the guitar, indicates a shift towards psychedelic rock (which was already present in previous records, but mixed with other aesthetics, such as "baroque pop"), and the lyrics reinforce this trend, since it sounds like a declaration of love under lysergic effects. In 2001, this track got a great cover by Pato Fu. "Quem Tem Medo de Brincar de Amor" has a vocal with a mocking Californian accent. Highlight for the pulsating bass line and the festive atmosphere, which was inserted to drown out the section that gives the title the title, due to its possible sexual connotation - which had already led censorship to veto the initial title, "Quem Tem Medo de Fazer Amor" ("Who's Afraid to Make Love"). "Ave, Lúcifer" manages to be beautiful and sinister at the same time, with one of the best lyrics of the band ("Apples surround naked bodies / In this flowing river / In gentle veins inside me / Angels and Archangels rest in this hellish Eden" ) combined with impeccable orchestral arrangements (made by maestro Rogério Duprat) - not by chance, it may be one of their songs that has aged the best. The ballad "Desculpe, Babe", according to Chris Fuscaldo in Discobiografia Mutante (2018), is a complementary song to "Quem Tem Medo de Brincar de Amor": "one more dramatic about breakup, the other more cheerful about restart" ( p. 74). "Meu Refrigerador Não Funciona" is another debauchery to Californians, this time both to Janis Joplin's vocals and to the long introductions of the bands' psychedelic songs there. It is one of the funniest compositions of the band, and the use of keyboards by Arnaldo to create a "macabre" atmosphere is masterful. "Hey Boy" targets the playboys who frequented the legendary Rua Augusta (which will be the subject of another song performed by Mutantes, two years later), in São Paulo. The protagonist's ending couldn't be more tragicomic: the song ends with the noise of a car accident ... "Preciso Urgentemente Encontrar um Amigo" is another case of satirical cover, this time of an unprecedented composition of two icons of the Jovem Guarda: Roberto and Erasmo Carlos. According to Chris Fuscaldo, "Roberto wanted to appear concerned about the issues of his time, tuned in to the youth that took to the streets (...), but he did not like the result and passed the music on to Erasmo, who handed it over to Mutantes before even if he recorded it (...) on his disc in 1972 "(p. 75). The only remnant of tropicalist aesthetics in A Divina Comédia is the iconoclastic cover of "Chão de Estrelas", an originally dramatic song by Sílvio Caldas. There is even a helicopter noise after the passage about the "woman, dove, who flew"! Tom Cardoso, in his text about this album for the Grande Discoteca Brasileira collection (2010), comments that the television presenter Flávio Cavalcanti, "who used to break live albums that he did not like, would have reduced the Mutantes album by pieces. cause of the deconstruction of 'Chão de Estrelas' "(p. 37). Cavalcanti, according to Fuscaldo, still made a speech "about the decay of youth values" (p. 78), which must have amused the band. "Jogo de Calçada" is a lesser known song, but I don't hesitate to put it as one of the highlights of A Divina Comédia. The performance of Sérgio Dias on the guitar is exciting, and the lyrics of the Wandler Cunha and Ilton Oliveira (from whom Arnaldo asked for permission to put it on his band's 3rd album) is very well sung by Rita Lee. The last two tracks are the most experimental, which may have to do with the fact that one of them has minimal lyrics ("Haleluia") on which melodic variations are made - at first it looks like a religious song, but after a while the mood of play is clear - and the other ("Oh! Mulher Infiel") is an instrumental jam with guitar and demonic keyboards.

Released on March 2, 1970, The Divine Comedy or Ando Meio Offline indicates the sound paths that the band would explore and deepen in the following albums, such as Jardim Elétrico (1971) and Mutantes e seus Cometas no País do Baurets (1972) - by the way, the latter would point to a new stylistic transition towards progressive rock. In such a consistent discography, pointing A Divina Comédia as the best Mutantes album goes through both its very high level repertoire and the experimental and irreverent spirit that permeates each of the tracks. I must agree with Tom Cardoso's assessment: "they reached their creative, musical peak, without whom they would become serious and 'mature' musicians. No, they were still deliciously debauched, as crazy as ever" (p. 37).