WORLD
BY DAVID HUTCHEON
Tim Bernardes ★★★★
Mil Coisas Invisíveis
PSYCHIC HOTLINE. CD/DL/LP
A newish Brazilian voice, admired by Gal Costa and Fleet Foxes.
Having achieved a fair bit of success with his group O Terno, and acclaim for his 2017 debut Recomeçar, Bernardes hit a stress-induced wall in 2020 – a convenient time, it turned out, for jumping off the treadmill and figuring out the meanings behind everything going on in his life. It appears to have worked: this gorgeous slice of 1970s-influenced acoustic Brazilian pop feels like the definitive statement by someone with his head screwed on tight (but loose). The title references “the million invisible things” that make our reality what it is, but what is obvious from first listen is that each of the 15 tracks already feel like standards – lovely, dreamy treats filled with McCartney-like melodic hooks and the singer’s high tenor. You may not have heard of Bernardes, but he is unlikely to be invisible for much longer.