Os Mutantes
Os Mutantes
1968
Album Summary
Os Mutantes is the debut album by the Brazilian tropicalia band Os Mutantes. It was originally released in 1968 by Polydor and blends traditional Brazilian music styles with American and British psychedelia. The album includes a cover of The Mamas & The Papas' "Once Was a Time I Thought", translated into "Tempo no Tempo", and a cover of "Le premier bonheur du jour", previously recorded by Françoise Hardy. It was reissued in 1999 on Omplatten Records and again in 2006 by Omplatten's (and Polydor's) parent company, Universal Records. The album has received critical acclaim around the world, and was put at #12 on Mojo magazine list of "50 Most Out-There Albums of All Time". It appears at number 9 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 greatest Brazilian albums of all time. It is also listed at 39 on Rolling Stone's "Top 40 Stoner albums". It also appears at number 9 on the Rolling Stones's 10 Greatest Latin Rock Albums of All Time.
WikipediaI listened to this album twice. The first time I quite enjoyed it but felt it was one of those albums that needs to be given more time to grow on me. The second listen opened up some of the melodies and rhythms and allowed me to pick apart some of the various styles and influences. Overall, I think that this album is criminally overlooked. We would do well to get outside of our Anglo-American concentration and see how what we are familiar with influences and has been influenced by what we are not familiar with.
This is one of those albums that makes you stop and wonder “where have you been all my life”. Every song get more interesting as you listen harder. Really superb arrangements and instrumental/production choices lead to an amazing psych rock album. I’ll definitely be listening to this again- and I’m ashamed to have never heard of it until now. Into the Brazilian psych rock rabbit hole I go!
A surprising find; an classic psych album I had missed and probably dismissed at some point because it wasn't in English. Right up my alley musically. I only wish I could understand the lyrics
Many people would be surprised at how open Brazilian musicians are to fusion with different styles. When I travelled to Brazil over the years I was fortunate to befriend a couple of music buffs who took me to some excellent concerts that demonstrate the wide variety of sounds. So the fucked up distorted riffs fused with samba in A Minha Menina seem par for the course. Some of this LP is wacky and wonderful while other bits are completely ridiculous. In the latter category is Ave Genghis Khan. It is so disjointed with insane riffs and I get the sense that even if I knew Portuguese the lyrics would still be meaningless. The name Ave Genghis Khan is ridiculous enough to make me rewind to Track 1. I love this album!
Very experimental and needs time to get used to. Weirdly catchy. It's quite a cohensive album so it's hard to pinpoint a favourite song because the songs blended together for me and I can't remember which song was which. Le Premier Bonheur Du Jour is a tentative favourite for now. It was also difficult to know when one song ended and the next began simply because for some of the songs like Panis Et Circenses the first half of the song sounds very different to the second half. The distorted guitar (or whatever the instrument is) was a bit jarring at times.
I love this record. It's super psychedelic. I bought a reissued vinyl of this last year. I got into them when a current band I like (Chicano Batman) name-dropped them. It's really pretty music with some crazy production. I think this is a group of artists - not really a traditional band. Which is also cool.
Weird and wonderful quirk factory. The Cuica is fast becoming one of my favourite instruments.
What a joy! I see multiple plays of this album in my future. Could eventually see myself going back and bumping this one up to a 5, but I can't just hand out 5's like they're tic tacs.
This album was really out there, psychadelic Brazilian folk music and I hear influences from the Mamas and the Papas, Zappa and Beatles. This one is quite dense and very inventive so I think it will get even better with repeated listenings.
Very 60s, I liked some of the songs. It sounded a bit Sgt. Pepper's-esque. Good background music but a bit too psychedelic depending on the mood.
I like it for it's progressiveness. It's an incredibly forward thinking album and should most definitely be put on a shelf next to Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's, but that being said, the language barrier as well as some of the more avant-garde parts distance me from liking as much as I think I should. Highlights: 1, and 8.
This is so dated and not in a good way. Too late for a first listening. Points for originality, but way too busy and all over the place. That was probably the point but just seems annoying to me. Nice song titles.
Fantástico, produção incrível, especialmente pra época. Uma mistura de rock, psicodelia, pop, lirismo... PROG excelente
La fusión que podría esperar de brasileños con lo psicodélico, experimental, ¿qué género es esto? La verdad es que la pasé bien, lo escuché dos veces y la segunda se me hizo más divertido, hay muchos sonidos por acá y de repente hasta parecen canciones de un musical. Es como un disco lúdico, pero visto en su momento, no sé qué tanto se sentía así o si era realmente serio. Sin duda, tengo un sesgo porque me emociona que nos toque algo que no está en inglés y de los sesenta, pero pues qué buena música nos tocó. Mis favs: "A Minha Menina", "Adeus Maria Fulô" y "Trem Fantasma". 9.5/10
4.7 + The breadth of experiments with sound and the depth of playfulness, is what made this album an instant favorite, and which rewards frequent returns.
This is great! Really enjoyed it, would like to have it on while sipping a beer in the hammock
świetny album, im dłużej go słuchałem to coraz bardziej mi się podobał, super brzmienie, bardzo ciekawe instrumentarium, wpadające w ucho melodie, nietuzinkowe wokale i oryginalna zabawa muzyką, na pewno będe do niego wracał. Baby, senhor F i le premier bonheur du jour chyba moje ulubione tracki
A pretty awesome album. Breath of fresh air. Pretty sure they are singing in Portuguese, so that’s cool. And the instrumentation is everything
Tribalismo lisérgico, guitarras distorsionadas y rotura con la tradición brasileira. Pop y samba retrofuturistas con la única ambición de empatar y hacerte volar. Alucinante en todos los sentidos.
Batshit crazy. And awesome. Like the soundtrack to some bananas euro-arthouse movie you keep falling asleep in.
5/5. Musically innovative and wild and very ambitious for its time. Couldn’t ask for more 👍
Being in Portuguese I didn’t understand the lyrics. But if they are half was decent this is the best psychedelic rock record I’ve heard.
Love, love, love Os Mutantes. I'm big fan of psychedelic rock in general, but they are probably my favorite psychedelic group of all. They are both more experimental and more fun than most other psychedelic bands. They have a very unique and diverse sound that manages to escape many of the cliches of psychedelia, while feeling more like a real trip. Almost surreal at times. Love the variety of their instrumentation, and their use of the studio to collage everything together.
Wow! This is opening new channels in my brain. I want my art to be as free as this music makes me feel. There's all these things coming in and out - there's a dirty guitar, then a sweeping synth, a "doo bee doo" pop vocal, samples of a dinner party, switching genres on a dime, all while somehow creating a cohesive set of songs. A remarkable creation, I'm hungry for more where that came from.
A fantastic and surprising good with lot of personality and a good mont of crust
I'm a sucker for Latin music. I'm a sucker for psychedelic rock too. I'm also a sucker for weird experimental stuffs I haven't heard before. This is literally a treat.
This is one of the essential pieces of Brazilian music, and I cannot give it less than five stars. All the influences from psychedelic rock and Brazilian traditional rhythms like samba are here, making an impressive album with a lot of poetry in its lyrics. I love this album!
Loved this. Some of the instrumentals made me think of the weirder end of the beach boys.
Y'kno, I might just be tired enough to where this *really* clicked with me. It's fucking bizarre, isn't it? Sounds like a time capsule simultaneously from the past and future, or some sort of alien music (doesn't hurt I can't understand a word of Brazilian Portuguese). It's got pop hooks, it's got weirdness... like strange cousins of the Beatles, who got heavier into acid. Absolutely love it. Favorite tracks: "A Minha Menina", "Adeus Maria Fulô", Tempo No Tempo", "Baby"
the Beatles Brazilian cousins took me on a journey that has changed me forever. I loved it so much
Freue mich, das entdeckt zu bekommen. Wäre dafür gern 25 Jahre jünger, mit weniger Terminen und mehr einen sitzen. Ganz geiler Scheiss auf jeden Fall, und für mich auch deutlich spannender und lustiger als vieles von den deutlich bekannteren Contemporaries aus den Kulturhegemonen UK und USA. Bunt schillernde 3,6 Sterne
Siempre son refrescantes estos descansos del anglocentrismo de esta lista. Variaciones chidas entre desorden, ruido y vocales limpios. Me gustó la verdad, sobre todo O relogio, con sus variaciones repentinas de mood; y Bat Macumba, Le premier du jour porque parece que apartir de ahí la cordura se va perdiendo en el disco y Ave Gengis khan que finaliza medio frenética.
"Mas as pessoas na sala de jantar São ocupadas em nascer e morrer" (Panis et circenses) "Você precisa saber da piscina Da margarina, da Carolina, da gasolina Você precisa saber de mim" (Baby) Pues todo bien por aquí
This was cool as hell, feels like dropping an alka seltzer into a cocktail
Very cool, like a psychedelic mixtape. Some insane Oboe and Bassoon playing too.
One word Wednesday: FuzzyCoolPortugeseChoirBoyPsychedelia. (Is that one word?)
The Brazilian Velvet Underground & Nico anyone? I really enjoyed the oddity of this.
Look, we all know Robert Plant's favourite from this is "baby"...that's a given. I thought it was pretty cool.
I liked some of this alot. A little too meandering in the track list but lots of good stuff.
I definitely like this one. This is the kind of album I came here for. I’ve heard of it, but never listened to it for whatever reason. But what a beautifully bizarre album. This is another band that I’m aware of, yet have never listened to. Well, I’m about to get more familiar with them. Or at least a little bit, I don’t know, I don’t have the longest attention span. But this one’s great
Idk what they're saying but I can keep grooving to this. It has that "oh this has definitely been in a lot of movie soundtracks" quality to it. Timeless and boppin'
These songs are built on a 60's pop/rock core, but tons of experimental engineering which makes it a wild listen. Sometimes the recording sounds amazing---sometimes more of a miss. Sometimes very hectic, but lots of variety in the compositions. There's also a Brazilian flavor here---it doesn't come through on every song, but fun when it does. 1. Fun, upbeat. wacky breakdown. 2. Woah: When the fuzzy guitar comes in 3. I love the guitar at the beginning of this song too. This one is a welcome slow-down, with a busy break in the middle. 4. Starts with fun bird sounds/is that a bottle cap? Then monkey noises? A jungle jam for sure. 5. The full organ and voice contrasts nicely with the guitar, which sounds like it's being played through a broken pocket radio. ... 8. Reminds me of a Zombies song with samba-sort-of twist 9. This is a great song. Weird, slow, fun intro to something totally different. Catchy. 10. Awesome clarinet. 11. Best song on the album? Love the drums. Love the riff. Love the organ. Love the guitar solo. Score: 4 - loved it
Thoroughly enjoyed their flare, especially with the Spanish vocals. Loved it, but 5 stars feels like a high bar that I’m not ready to dish out.
Weird psychedelia that manages to stay fresh for the whole album, though isn't exactly polished. 7
8/10. I'm hearing a lot more circus than bread in the first track, but maybe the lyrics I don't understand balance that out. Overall a fun album to listen to, I like that they changed up the pace a lot.
such a strange album! i liked how much variety there was, and i really loved some of these tracks. i think it suffered a lot from poor mixing, and at times the distorted guitar was a bit grating. 8/10
Well this was fun. Very entertaining. All kinds of styles and a kitchen sink of sounds but always delivered with a wink and a smile. Much the same as when I first heard, Histoire de Melody Nelson thus us one that will get multiple listens. 4 🌟
Really cool flair. Could have come out last year and I wouldn't be surprised.
I’ve got a soft spot for Brazilian music. Doesn’t get much funkier, for sure.
Absolutely enjoyed this and had never heard it before. A few of the songs sounded like proto-Stereolab
At first I was like wtf, I'm not gonna listen that, but I gave it a go and boy oh boy this was gold
Reminded me a lot of the Beatles, even though it wasn't in english. Pretty fun music. No recognized songs
Enjoyable psychedelia/experimental, and compared to Caetano Veloso, this is more my speed in regards to the Tropicalia movement.
Music for a fever dream. I love this. It’s definitely not something to dive into every day, but it is absolutely perfect for when this kind of mood strikes.
I think I got one of the weirder albums on this list because I haven’t heard anything like this before. It felt like the experimental Spanish version of psychedelic music and it felt totally unique. Based off music alone, this is a 3 but the sheer uniqueness makes it a 4. Fav: a minha menina
Wacky psychedelic Latin album. At first listen, I thought it was all over the place and I did not like it and was glad when it was over. At second listen, I still thought it was all over the place, but I enjoyed it a lot more and at times could not suppress a stupid smile appearing on my face. I'm confused.
Liked it towards the end much more than when I started it. Didn't think I was enjoying it and then found myself nodding my head and tapping my foot by mid album. Need to learn Spanish.
More than just a Brazilian style Beatles and psychedelic 60’s rip off, this album is all sorts of charming weird and wonderful.
Really enjoyed this. Knew a couple of songs (A Mina Mehnina & Bat Macumba) but great to hear the whole album. This demonstrates just why Sgt Pepper is cited as such an influential album. A lot of the sounds, styles and even the cabaret wackiness are all borrowed from that album. Particularly the horns of Panis. The Beatles’ previous works, particularly Revolver’s staccato fuzz guitars can be heard here too. All this is filtered through a Brazilian sensibility, taking it somewhere else entirely in places. The album sounds like it was a lot of fun to make, and a great example of world psychedelia of the time, and just how big that genre's influence was.
its spanish but it sounds like a 60s softrock band, and 60s spanish music and it has some intersting sounds in it that remind me of more electronical influences so its quite an intersting album. pretty good for it's era
The 32nd album proposed by "1001 albums generator" is the first one that doesn't come from the Anglo-Saxon world, and I will possibly wait a very long time before an Italian or Ethiopian production appears. This project should be called "1001 Anglo-Saxon Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" (maybe "only" 950 albums would remain). Indeed, the British and United States pop music has had a tremendous influence on the international production. This Os Mutantes album provides a good example of that, as much of its songs are deeply influenced by 60s Anglo-Saxon music. But what makes Os Mutantes interesting is the absorption of those codes by the Brazilian tradition, giving us a "mutant" music that can only enrich popular music.
Not heard before. Excellent. Brazilian to its core, but with influences from the US and UK.
60's garage rock blended with brazilian music. This album sounds like The Velvet Underground and The Beatles went on a trip to São Paulo and got incredibly stoned to the extent that they forgot who they are. This album may appear like it loses structure all the time, but I am really fond of this chaotic energy. Needed this. Thanks to this project, I found about this gold of an album.
Freaky Brazilian psychedelic pop jams, a genre which surely sounds one of the coolest on earth. The album itself is pretty cool, but am I enthusiastic for it? One question: does anyone really find it that freaky? Its unconventionality felt predictable. Maybe I'm inured to psychedlic oddness, but I wasn't remotely as startled as I had come to expect from reading accounts of this album. This isn't a failing per se (novelty isn't inherently better or worse than caution aesthetically), but I would suggest that either the psychedelights of this album have been superceded by later sonic experiments, or that critics have overstated this album's strangeness because it's all in foreign. This is not to disparage the album; it's worthy of your time, and you should find much to like on it. But I can't say it's seismic enough for a full 5 stars. A worthwhile curio.
First time listening and this is an oddity that I have never heard before. I wish I spoke Portuguese as if the lyrics are as intriguing as the music this is a cracker! Favourite Tracks "Senhor F" "A Minha Menina""Bat Macumba" and "Ave Genghis Khan" Brilliant stuff and why I love this site so much, this is rightfully on the list.
This is an interesting album, psychadelic rock mixed with Latin music and instruments. It's nice when something unfamiliar comes up on this list, and this album is something I definitely never would have come across if not for doing this. Very unique, and an interesting listen but not something I would put on repeat.
60s commune vibes—in Portuguese! It’s all there: fuzzy guitars, Hammond organ, lyrics in reverse, tambourine, quirky co-ed group. 3 or 3.5 stars, but rounding up to 4 for the fun factor.
Ideias com qualidade e força musical para sintetizar um contexto importante.
This is the Brazilian Sgt. Pepper. Best Songs: A Minha Menina, Sonhor F, Le Premier Bonheur Du Jour, Tempo No Tempo, Bat Macumba Worst Songs: Baby, Ave Gengis Khan