| Songs in the Key of Life, after Stevie Wonder’s 1976 album of the same name |
There are albums that make you feel like you are coming home. Justin Sullivan’s ‘Surrounded’ is one of them. And admittedly, it helps to be about the same age as the New Model Army frontman. At the same time, Justin Sullivan is not so much a troubadour of his generation as he is a troubadour between generations, a singer and songwriter who knows how to use his roots to find his way out of the dark alleys of history and into the paths of the future.
One of the most appealing songs on ‘Surrounded’ is ‘São Paulo’.
Missing friends and nostalgia for the pleasures of a colourful life, perhaps materially poor but spiritually rich, initially define Justin Sullivan’s almost poetic atmospheric sketch of the nocturnal Brazilian metropolis, carried by double bass and harp:
And the busses rattle over the potholes and the night falls so fast
And the lime and the sugar, strong is the taste of life
And the veil is so thin between the spirit world and this
And the warm wind blows through it and touches like a kiss on the lips
But then the lyrics twist and the mood shifts from joy and samba to another, rougher and darker reality, about stolen land, the destruction of the forest, lies:
And all the land was stolen, guarded and sown
There are fires in the forests and emptied villages
And people arrive from everywhere
High cheek-boned, sunken eyes, beautiful faces
An appealing video for ‘São Paulo’ was released at the end of 2021.
Justin Sullivan – Surrounded
