Carolina Lins and Os Planatos Give the Kaiser Chiefs’ “I Predict a Riot” a Brazilian Touch (premiere)

Carolina Lins and band Os Planatos take a quintessentially Brazilian approach to their cover of the Kaiser Chiefs’ classic “I Predict a Riot”. Featured in 2018 documentary film Kaiser: The Greatest Footballer Never to Play Football, the group juxtaposes the original track’s anarchic spirit against the infectious stylings of música popular brasileira. Warm brass and swaying beats add tropical flavor to the mix, elevating the tune from raucous to rapturous.

Alongside the sounds are visuals from the film itself, which tells the story of the footballer known as Carlos Kaiser. More accurately, it tells the story of a man known as a footballer known as Carlos Kaiser; Kaiser took care throughout his career as a superstar to maintain a façade of injuries and other excuses that kept him out of every game his teams played while he lived the fabulous life of a charming celebrity athlete. It’s a con too outrageous to be anything but true, and the whirlwind of color and sound in Lins’ and Os Platanos’ “I Predict a Riot” makes for a perfect tonal fit.

Such a thoroughly convincing adaptation from the sounds of one continent to those of another required serious creativity – which, fortunately, the team at hand have in spades. “The original track has a lot of colloquialisms to Leeds,” Carolina Lins points out, “and also English lyrics that don’t translate well. So, film director Louis Myles and his translator rewrote the second verse to be about the fight Kaiser had with Castor [de Andrade, the unofficial head of the illegal sports gambling scene in 1980s Rio de Janeiro], whilst the title of the song is the Brazilian Portuguese way of saying ‘I Predict a Riot’ – ‘Sinto cheio de confusão’ – ‘I smell confusion.'”

The chaos is certainly palpable, but Carolina Lins and Os Planatos are anything but confused in this exuberant release. Instead, they soar, in full control as they shape the song from Britpop bop to compelling samba.