Gritty rock 'n roll and well-crafted pop engage in a tug of war in this debut CD; what would have once been called alternative music is, simply put, great pop music that soars with lyrics alternating between exuberance and sorrow.

12 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, POP: Pop/Rock



Details:
Pedro Pereira grew up on gritty rock and well-crafted pop. Influences range from alternative rock bands Cracker, World Party and Camper Van Beethoven to the California pop of Fleetwood Mac to the gritty rock of the Rolling Stones to the poetry and song-craft of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.

The songs on "Last Man on the Planet" alternate between longing and exuberance, sorrow and joy, contentment and disillusionment. In other words, not unlike life itself. The songwriting on these tracks is informed by life experience, social observation and the life-affirming sense of wonder that comes with feeling "every turn," "filling your ears to the fullest sound" and savoring "each breath," as the artist sings ardently in "Before I Wake."

A journalist by trade, writer by passion and musician by chance, Pedro Pereira has compiled in "Last Man on the Planet" a collection of songs that will make you think, wonder, feel, laugh and commiserate. In the title track, the author pokes fun at everyday experiences that make you wonder if your way of thinking is so different from everybody else's that you start to feel you're the last soul on earth. "All these ghosts in the fog," he sings, "how do they ever find their step/And everybody looks like someone that I've already met."

In "Wish" and "The Island," the artist evokes images of his native island, and in "Saudade," sung in Portuguese, he pays tribute to his motherland's seafaring tradition and nostalgia for its past glory. "Lay Down Your Sword," meanwhile, is filled with urgency and regret as it tells the tale of a soldier who comes to terms with the realities that prompt him to give up the steel.

Pereira spent a year and a half in the studio working with producer Doug Kwartler, of Hollow Body Studios. He pulled into the project a talented group of musicians that he has met over the years while introducing his songs to small audiences in the open mic and cafe circuit on Long Island. Undeniably a singer/songwriter, Pereira nevertheless transcends the constraints of that categorization with well-crafted arrangements that now rock without a hint of self-consciousness, now build into sonic tours de force that delight the senses. Much credit for the arrangements goes to producer Kwartler, who had the right sensibility to give these tracks the treatment they deserved.

"Last Man on the Planet" is a worthy debut.