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
Vagalume
Mosquitos Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Vá vá vá, suma daqui
Quando você chegou perto de mim
Eu vagava sozinha, free
It was just me
E aí você me puxou para dentro do azul
E eu mergulhei sem medo, nenhum
Então você me deixou, sua luz se apagou
Me vi vagando sozinha, dor
I had to go
The lyrics to Mosquitos' song Vagalume have a dreamy and abstract quality to them, but they seem to be describing an encounter with a person who initially brings a sense of freedom and excitement ("Eu vagava sozinha, free"), but then disappears suddenly, leaving the singer feeling lost and in pain ("Me vi vagando sozinha, dor"). The repeated mantra of "Vaga vaga vaga vagalume" and "Vá vá vá, suma daqui" creates a sense of movement and chasing, as if the singer is pursuing something elusive and fleeting. The metaphor of the firefly ("vagalume") adds to this sense of etherealness and transient beauty, as fireflies are known for their brief, flickering existence.
The middle section of the song shifts to a more intimate, comforting tone, as the singer addresses someone directly: "E aí você me puxou para dentro do azul / E eu mergulhei sem medo, nenhum / I'll take care of you". This could be interpreted as a memory of the initial encounter, where the person drew the singer out of their solitary wanderings and into a connection that felt safe and supportive. However, this section also adds a layer of ambiguity and uncertainty, as the singer imagines the other person saying "I'll take care of you", but then abruptly leaving without explanation. The final lines of the song seem to be a resignation to this cycle of fleeting encounters and temporary connections, as the singer declares "I had to go", perhaps acknowledging that the nature of relationships is often unpredictable and transitory.
Overall, Vagalume is a song that captures the bittersweet and elusive qualities of human connection, with a dreamy, poetic quality that leaves room for interpretation and reflection.
Line by Line Meaning
Vaga vaga vaga vagalume
Continuously moving, flying firefly
Vá vá vá, suma daqui
Go away, fly away
Quando você chegou perto de mim
When you came near me
Eu vagava sozinha, free
I was wandering alone, free
E aí você me puxou para dentro do azul
And then you pulled me into the blue
E eu mergulhei sem medo, nenhum
And I dove in without any fear
I'll take care of you
I'll protect you
Então você me deixou, sua luz se apagou
And then you left me, your light went out
Me vi vagando sozinha, dor
I saw myself wandering alone in pain
I had to go
I had to leave
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: ROOT, SMITH, STULBACH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind