Revolver laid the foundations for a never-seen-before strategy within show business, later perfected and dutifully assumed with Sgt Pepper: to record an album so complex that on-stage reproduction would be rendered impossible.

Where does one begin to talk about how seminal The Beatles’ Revolver is?

By the abnormally balanced way…

1969 is the key year to understanding not only the events that ultimately dictated the approach the Maysles brothers took of what was initially planned to be a documentary in the style of Woodstock or Monterey, but also of the general feeling of malaise that impregnated the so-called love generation…

Putting together an essential Bob Dylan playlist must be one of the most difficult tasks ever. With a career over half-a-century long, full of extreme highs and shameful lows, and featuring thirty-six studio albums plus countless live cuts and bootlegs, it’s virtually impossible to cover all of his work on…

Spoiler alert: he dies at the end.

I was raised a Catholic. Coming from the North of Portugal, it was almost inevitable, even though my parents — having always taught me the importance of questioning everything (which gave me my fair share of problems at school) — never forced religion on me: we’d never go to church…

Oh God, where to start? I’ll just make it plain and simple: Love & Mercy is an amazing movie and I can’t wait to watch it again. …

Serge Gainsbourg was one of the most revolutionary composers of his time. By mixing several styles that had rarely been combined before (Jazz, Chanson, World music, Bossa Nova, Pop, Prog Rock, Reggae — to name only a few), he created some of last century’s greatest melodies, either for him or…

[this was initially published as a Christmas piece at thefourohfive.com in December 2016]

The year is 2001, it’s Christmas Day and I’m at my aunt and uncle’s feeling slightly under the weather. My cousin — who introduced me to many good things in life (The Ramones, Nirvana, Sex Pistols, Ghost…

António Variações’ importance is felt not only music-wise, but also through the way he dared to reinvent masculinity-related concepts in a post-dictatorship Portugal, which places him among the likes of Prince and David Bowie.

There is no particular reason for putting this playlist together at this very moment; there are no special rereleases coming out (at least that I’m aware of), it’s not António’s birthday, and 2017 doesn’t mark any special anniversary of his death. …