I’ll be honest with all of y’all…I know pretty much nothing about what I’m currently listening to. I tried to do some research on this record, I really did, but with no Wikipedia page, and less than specific info readily available on both of its creators, I’m just kind of going with the flow with Tropicalia 2. I have learned a bit about Tropicália, a weird little Brazilian late-’60s rock movement. I’m sure that we’ll all be getting a massive history lesson in the comment section, so I won’t even try to tell the story behind the movement.
Instead, I’m going to stick with what I do best—butchering descriptions of music. To quote the brilliant Sean Bonnette of Andrew Jackson Jihad, “Hate[rs], rain on me.”
So let’s start off with the obvious: this stuff sounds like Vampire Weekend. I know that these guys did it thirteen years before good ol’ Vampy Weeks, but it’s about all I can hear on this record. Well, that’s not entirely true—there’s also a bit of Why? in here as well, especially with the mostly-talked tracks like “Haiti.”
The point that I’m trying to make here is as follows: perhaps a bunch of the music that I regularly listen to may be influenced by this style. If not by Tropicalia 2 in particular, then by the movement that inspired it as a whole. Sure, the stuff that I usually play isn’t in Spanish, but how much does that even matter? It still sounds cool, and that’s all that should be important. I am waiting to be educated about this stuff, though, so bring it on, Chops.
Swole Ear 