Luiz e os Louises
Life’s a Cigarette
A jaunty acoustic “Please Everyone†introduces us to Luiz e os Louises’ unique talk-vocal and laconic delivery on this 11-song Life’s a Cigarette. This Brazil-via-New-York-City musician/songwriter reminds one of Lou Reed, at times (although Luiz Henrique Niehues’s voice is much sweeter than old Lou’s) mixed with the very best Latin influence.
“Mary Lou,†moves along with a slightly quicker groove than most here, and with João Nogueira’s light keyboard touches, this makes for a perfect little gem. We get a good feel of Dan Lead’s electric work on the decidedly electric “To May;” Niehues has a good way of throwing in a slight rocker every to often with all the acoustic stuff.
“Time To Love,†reminds me certainly of Reed, with its low strings and weird ooh’s in the background; very Berlin-like. “Go Away,†sees Niehues telling his antagonist off. It’s nice to have this here in the midst of such sweet stuff.
A true psychedelic “Girl,†complete with wailing guitar noise and Larissa Conforto’s drums splash to the fore in another loud track. I love the cool middle weird instrumental break in this tune, with Sabine Holler holding down the flumping bass.
The piano leads us through the last big ended here, “Going Home.†The choruses vocals at the coda and again subtle guitar from Lead bring it all home as a perfect ender to Life’s a Cigarette…which is pretty much a perfect little read of what Luiz e os Louises is all about.
