Krian Music Group

It’s almost absurd to consider the fact that Sérgio Dias now calls Las Vegas home, and yet it makes perfect sense. A kitschy sheen of gaudy surrealism always permeated the music of Os Mutantes – a group that, in its infancy, aligned itself with the restless, multi-hued ethos of Brazil’s late-‘60s Tropicália movement – and the devil-may-care Dias was its main instigator. Fool Metal Jack, the Mutantes’ ninth studio album and only their second in more than 35 years, retains some of the psychedelic gloss of days past while diving head-first into a politically charged and erudite mixture of indie rock, folk and pop. Dias proves to be a deft songwriter in English, tackling military fetishism in the hard-edged title track ( “No books, no hook, no Tinkerbell…/ My children’s dreams are blown to hell” ) and America’s housing meltdown in “The Dream Is Gone” ( “Half my ship is wrecked/ Can’t find no hatch to safely hide the waves” ). It’s pretty heavy stuff, but Dias and the band – a predominantly younger version of the original lineup – channel a fun-loving, even sardonic whimsy that recalls Rundgren or Zappa in their most snaggle-toothed moments.