I’m not up-to-date on recent Brazilian music, yet Recomeçar, the first solo album by O Terno’s Tim Bernardes, feels like one of those records that finds you anyway.
I discovered his band through a work colleague—shoutout Jhonny!—and their 2016 album Melhor do que Parece is worthy of praise on its own, with tracks like “Culpa”, “Volta”, and the title track. But it was in Tim’s solo work that I found the most solace. From “Não”:
Eu não vou mais ser seu amigo
I won’t be your friend anymore
Eu quero até, mas não consigo
I even want to, but I can’t
The whole album circles this feeling of wanting to move forward while learning how to say goodbye—leaving because life asks us to, yet refusing to ignore who remains on the other side of our decisions. In “Pouco a Pouco” he sings:
Não sei onde eu me perdi
Don’t know where I lost myself
Quanta coisa que eu fingi
So many things I’ve pretended
Minha mente deu um nó
My mind got all tangled up
Eu podia ser melhor pra mim
I could be better to myself
And then the chorus:
Pouco a pouco eu vou me conhecer melhor
Little by little I’ll know myself better
It carries the weight of countless therapy sessions, the empathy of someone deeply in touch with his own contradictions.
