Rubel awakens critic in new album: ‘attentive to Brazil’ [ENTREVISTA]

rubel launches, this Friday (3), The Words, Vol. 1 & 2. The third studio album by the singer from Rio de Janeiro expands his reach as a composer in 15 of the 20 tracks on the double edition, and also his artistic vision, more mature and questioning after the celebrated pearl (2013) and Houses (2018).

“More than liking music, I liked lyrics. I wanted to be a lyricist.” If Rubel has always been an artist of words, here he adds a passion for letters to a more critical, less introspective social look, as if, in addition to being a poet, he was also a chronicler of an idiosyncratic Brazil.

“I was very moved by what was happening in the political and social scene, by Brazil, which was entering a very sinister moment”, he says, “it made me think, in 15 to 20 years, I will look back and I will ask what did I do during that time. What was I saying? What was I singing?”

The insight would have been the cue for Rubel to explore unprecedented spaces for his career until then. Among tracks that refine his traditional MPB, such as the excellent “Lua de Garrafa”, in which he shares lyrics and music with Milton Nascimentothe disc also includes passages through forró, through pagode, with “Grão de Areia”, in partnership with Xande de Pilares; and by funk, in “Put@ria!”, an amusing intentional opposition to the seriousness of MPB, with the participation of BK, Gabriel do Borel It is Mc Carol.

“It has a thing of opening wide, of really revealing. I think my work, and that of some aspects of Brazilian music, is very well-behaved, you know?”

More than an aesthetic choice, the union of different voices is also part of a coexistence of tradition and modernity that is the theme of this album. “If we’re thinking about what MPB is today, what Brazilian popular music is, it makes a lot of sense that we dialogue with funk, because it’s what’s most popular and perhaps most Brazilian today”, explains Rubel.

To make use of The words, Rubel needed to change the way he works. Since 2019, he has immersed himself in a series of studies, from musical harmony to Brazilian literature – which culminated, among other moments, in the also great “Torto Arado”, an explicit reference to the book by Itamar Vieira Juniorwith shares of linker It is Luedji Luna.

The passage through the songbook ended up introducing him to the right collaborators, who agreed to turn the “well behaved” legacy of his repertoire into something new:

“It’s less like me alone, producing in my room with friends. I went to produce pagode with Tiaguinho’s crew, with Ferrugem. Funk was with Gabriel do Borel. So there’s a dialogue. What also defines this record a lot is a dialogue with great Brazilian musicians.”

In the final selection of the album – released by Koala Records – Rubel even included contributions from Candy Wish It is Dora Morelenbaumin Ana Caetano and the duo deekapz. On the entire disc, the only two songs that were not composed by him come from Luiz Gonzagafitting well into the second part of the disc.

“This was not previously conceived, this was done when it was already recorded. I think volume 1 is more popular, it plays for a more contemporary, more solar Brazil. Side 2 is more based on Brazilian tradition, and it is more dense. It has the most political issues, the most difficult to deal with.”

For those who followed him in pearl or in Houses, this is a different Rubel. From the confessed fear of exploring new areas, he chooses to become a more conscious artist. Which he does without losing the smoothness with which he sang the subjectivities of the heart in previous works. In fact, Rubel from The words seems the most sensitive so far. He sings poetry as if he were telling a story, narrating about the now with an eye on the future, knowing the weight that art carries, one word at a time.

Watch Rubel’s interview for Rolling Stone Brazil below:

Listen to the album below: