Like most of III, that ingenious choice of cover is suffused with what the Brazilians call saudade, a word that defies literal translation but signifies a bittersweet sense of longing. Saudade gives even the breeziest bossa nova melodies a tinge of melancholy and makes them all the more entrancing. All of the tracks here have smart, sing-along arrangements that will draw you in and undercurrents of wistful feeling that will keep you listening raptly for a long time to come. III, you will discover, is also an engrossing soundtrack to a very real story.
In the fall of 2005, after touring North America with their live band-mates, bassist Mikey Onufrak and drummer Mark Robohm, Juju and Chris decided to escape the approaching New York City winter to spend quality time in the places that had inspired their music. Keyboardist Jon, in demand as an engineer-mixer, stayed behind at his studio. The group had already cut almost an album’s worth of tunes, but felt they weren’t ready to release anything yet. First stop was the Pacific coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. (Check out Juju and Chris’s photos at www.mosquitosnyc.com.) There they witnessed the November Day of the Dead events. As Juju recalls, “It was a beautiful experience. By celebrating death, everyone was really celebrating life. It was a time to talk to the ones who’d left this world.” Juju wept when she left Mexico, but had reason to be happy too: she and Chris were going to see her family in Rio. That’s where the Mosquitos’ sound was created, in a studio/shack near Ipanema, the setting for the group’s oft-licensed tune, “Boombox.”
Back in Rio, Juju hung out a lot with her mom, Anna Morato, a dressmaker. Anna not only supported Juju’s career, she designed her daughter’s stage outfits, which matched in color, fabric and cut the vivacity of the Mosquitos’ music. Three weeks into Juju’s visit, “after a great sushi dinner where we drank caipirinhas and laughed a lot,” Juju explains, her mother, a relatively young woman who’d experienced a few fainting spells earlier that month, suddenly passed away. “The world became a completely different and surreal place for me on the days following her death,” Juju says, “ full of rich life and deep love and sadness mixed together everywhere. When we got back to New York City a little over a month later, I felt that my mother had come with me.”
An acceptance of fate’s role in one’s life is another aspect of saudade; Juju and Chris felt that destiny had sent them on their journey to South America. The songs they wrote or reworked from those earlier sessions became a sort of diary of the joy and sadness, highs and lows, of the previous months. As Chris put it, “We wanted the music to continue to grow the same way we were growing, as a band and as people. We spent more time and thought nurturing the sounds, the vocal performances, the ideas behind the songs.”
Mosquitos’ work has always been partly autobiographical. Their debut disc cheerfully chronicled Chris’ wooing of Juju across two hemispheres. The material on III is personal in a deeper way, though knowledge of the back-story is not a prerequisite to appreciating these tunes. Songs like “Ele” have the same sort of easy-going bossa nova groove as “Boombox” and “Sunshine Barato”; “Mama’s Belly” accelerates that groove and adds a kooky speed-jazz guitar solo from Mikey, switching from bass. “Soap” is early-sixties pop balladry a la “A Summer Place,” with roller-rink organ and record-album scratches, designed specifically for dancing close and slow. “Just A Touch” channels the Lovin’ Spoonful’s cheerful jug-band sound and even features a kazoo solo.
As Juju learned in Mexico, sometimes the best way to deal with the most difficult moments is to celebrate our most treasured ones. III is a celebration of life, love, sex, music, ephemeral pleasures and enduring feelings. It’s guaranteed to warm your heart throughout our chilliest seasons.
-- Michael Hill
Blue Heart
Mosquitos Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Dinner under the stars with you.
Sad face want to see it no more.
You can even pay the bill. All we've got is time to kill.
Another round of loneliness and you can go back to your pill.
Blue heart. Red heart. Broken heart want to see it no more.
Your tired eyes under the blue skies don't go together anymore.
You can even drive us there. All we've got is love to spare.
Just one more chance to joy again and you can go back to despair.
The song Blue Heart by Mosquitos is a lamentation of a broken heart that longs for companionship but is tired of the pain it brings. The lyrics open with a plea to see no more of the heart's various emotional states - blue, red, and broken - symbolizing the toll that heartbreak takes on a person. The song then transitions to a dinner date under the stars, where the singer welcomes the other party to foot the bill, emphasizing the fleeting nature of time and suggesting that they might as well enjoy each other's company.
The lyrics then discuss loneliness, a recurring theme in the song, and a pill that can be taken to ease the pain. The pain of heartbreak is likened to a 'round' of loneliness, suggesting a never-ending cycle. The song then turns to the singer's status as the girl of the best friend and an invitation to the shore. The other party can even drive the group there, and all they have is 'love to spare', emphasizing the transience of joy and contrast with the earlier suggestion of enjoying the moment while it lasts. The song ends with the promise of one more chance to find joy and then a return to despair.
Line by Line Meaning
Blue heart, red heart, broken heart, want to see it no more.
Tired of feeling sadness and heartache, longing for something better.
Dinner under the stars with you.
Sharing a romantic meal together outside, enjoying each other's company.
Sad face want to see it no more.
Tired of feeling unhappy and wanting to move on from negative emotions.
You can even pay the bill. All we've got is time to kill.
Money is not an issue, and there's no rush to do anything else.
Another round of loneliness and you can go back to your pill.
Feeling lonely again and resorting to medication to cope with the pain.
Your tired eyes under the blue skies don't go together anymore.
Feeling disconnected and like things are not as they used to be.
I'm the girl of your best friend and you invited us down to the shore.
Being with someone who is off-limits and has caused tension in the past.
You can even drive us there. All we've got is love to spare.
Having plenty of love to give and not worrying about transportation.
Just one more chance to joy again and you can go back to despair.
Desperately seeking happiness and wanting to escape from despair once more.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: ROOT, SMITH, STULBACH, TREECE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind