Anitta, Funk Generation – Brazil’s reigning superstar didn’t get to the top by sucking, so of course she puts out competent+ albums. Formally, the most interesting thing about her latest is that only one of the 15 songs passes the three minute mark, which means its assembly line funk doesn’t have time to get stale. But as great as this may sound in the club, in a more reflective listening place it’s hard to distinguish her from the competition. Where Billie and Olivia and even the boring-to-me Taylor manage to assert an artistic identity within the pop machine, Anitta is merely its product. Music as fast food. But, of course, there are reasons fast food is popular, and as with that addictive junk, the producers here have figured out a ruthlessly efficient formula to worm their way into your ear, even the ear of cynical reviewer. That’s where those short tunes come in again. Finding a beat or a vocal hook or something to grab you, Anitta and the producers ride it hard and fast, and then move on before you can get bored or think too deeply about it. If it doesn’t have the cultural heft of Motown, that’s probably more because I’m oldish. Why can’t the kids have their fun, too? Grade: B
Luiza Brina, Prece – She tried expanding the more austere sounds of Tão Tá without much success on Tenho Saudade Mas Já Passou, but on her latest she finds the right balance between her quieter early music and the bigger sound she’s been reaching for. The secret is she doesn’t move as far away from the traditionalist mode as she fills it out, even with the occasional modern touch. She’s stronger in this vein than she is in a middle of the road MPB sound. Her details pop, and the polyrhythmic beds of percussion give the music an engaging flow. The album emerged from ten years of writing non-religious ‘prayers’ that helped her connect with something spiritual without the institutional or theological baggage of organized religion. The music’s yearning, hopeful, contemplative aura drives home that theme even when lyrics are hard to find. Grade: B+
Carne Doce, Cererê – With touring and collective recording derailed by Covid, the excellent Interior did not serve as the launch it could have, so the first album in four years feels like a possible new start. Salma Jô’s and Macloys Aquino’s pandemic duo projects hinted and new directions that the band might head. Instead they went right back to the sounds they started exploring with Tônus. After the excellent Salma e Mac release Voo Livre, that turn was disappointing. Maybe their songwriting well was running dry. No one can keep it up forever, and four excellent albums of Brazilian indie rock (plus Voo Livre) would be a heckuva legacy. But once I’d absorbed the disappointment, I heard the band that has grabbed my ears this past decade like few others. It does sag in the second half, but the band plays and Jô sings as well as they ever have, which is a key part of why the band has done so well. Peak? No. Entering a phase of diminishing marginal returns? Time will tell. But for now, they still are worth my ear time. Listen and buy here. Grade: B+
Céu, Novela – With help from producer Adrian Younge and a cameo from Ladybug Mecca, Céu starts this album as strong as she’s ever been. The lush R&B moves that follow give her voice, which continues the warmer singing of the previous two albums, a slick, funky context in which to shine. But neither Young nor Céu can keep it up for a whole album. The strong, more straightforward North American rhythms overwhelm her vocals. Both artists have good ideas, but also struggle to keep them sharp over a whole album. In other words, Céu is back to the not bad that has marked her career with the exception of those two 2021 albums. Great lead track, however. Listen here. Grade: C
Duda Beat, Tara e Tal – Leads off with the purest disco she’s done—that whomp whomp is so deliciously retro—and continues apace for six more tracks with the slow incorporation of more modern sounds. But the folky guitar strum on “por aí mozão” knocks the album right out of its groove, followed by the rocky “NiGHT MARé”, which is even worse. Closes with three that could have been a gentle landing after the first seven, but instead come across as wobbly attempts to recover momentum. On that first half, however, she’s never been better. Listen here. Grade: B-
Verônica Ferriani, Cochico no Silêncio Vira Barulho, Irmã – For the best album of her career, Ferriani surrounds herself with women to reflect upon womanhood while refracting through the life-altering event of having kids. Where family often slows down the working life as those time-and-attention sponges we call kids take over, Ferriani springs off the change to lift her art to a level it’s never reached. In forty-eight minutes split over two discs—or, really, ‘discs’ since this is a streaming world and I’m not even sure how to buy the physical I so want—Ferriani ponders the imbalance of parenthood that so many women experience, highs blunted and lows deepened by the different expectations and workloads women face when kids enter the picture without losing sight of what’s good amid the sometimes bad. The album cover captures the tension brilliantly with a barely-holding-it-together Ferrarini holding a frying pan with a cavaquinho handle: her new life in miniature. Musically, she leans more into samba than is her MPB norm. Those sambas balance both traditional and modern to ground her lyrical ideas, much like the parenting she’s learning to navigate in a society that tears women in both those directions. The ambition is welcome. Motherhood hasn’t been mental freeze at all for Ferriani. Listen here. Grade: A-
Josyara, Mandinga Multiplicação – Josyara Canta Timbalada – Scaling back the band approach of ÀdeusdarÁ, Josyara returns to the guitar/voice strengths of Mansa Fúria in this tribute to Carlinhos Brown’s Timbalada. Six potent songs in 13 minutes, this EP gets tradition right (as Brazilian artists so often do) not by replicating, but by revivifying. Leading off with “Ralé—the opening couplet declares Jesus a Palestinian—she makes clear that this music is not merely of the past. Nor are the struggles against oppression by black and brown people “U-Maracá” documents. Even the four love songs that close out the EP sound more alive than recycled. But as nice as the songs are, it’s that voice and, especially, guitar, which she plays as rhythmically as the percussion-heavy band she’s covering, that deliver them. If, like me, you found the good ÀdeusdarÁ disappointing after the top-notch Mansa Fúria, the good news here is that she’s back in that peak form. Grade: A-
Juçara Marçal, DEB RMX – On paper, a remix album sounds promising in these postmodern times: the endless recycling of consumption and experience as music is revisited and reinterpreted to find new life in a new context. And, sure enough, there’s some interesting stuff here, but it doesn’t add up to much as an album. Kiko Dinucci’s production unified the tracks on Delta Estácio Blues, where here producers send the music in all kinds of different directions that sounds like a radio station run by a confused programmer. Theoretically, the diversity is interesting, but as a listening experience it agitates more than enlightens no matter how enjoyable many of the parts are. Grade: C
Arthur Melo, Mirantes Emocionais – Pandemic over, he works with a band again, which in some ways is a shame. His introspective singing really takes off when accompanied solely by his guitar. But his songwriting remains solid despite the different context. The first track is a mess, but skip it and hear an album nearly as consistent as Adeus. The disco touches—I guess Bala Desejo ignited a pop disco moment there (although some of these moves recall Carne Doce, who were doing it earlier)—are a surprise, but pulled off well enough. It boggles my mind that Sessa’s not bad wallpaper can garner 85,000 monthly listens on that service while Melo’s similar, but much more engaging, tunes can’t break 3,000. Maybe we should change that. Listen here. Grade: B
Fabiano do Nascimento and Sam Gendel, The Room – The first and likely not last album of the year from the increasingly prolific guitarist covers familiar ground even in its chosen collaborator, but that’s not a bad thing. The simplicity of the instrumentation lets Nascimento and Gendel shine without burying their playing in goop, and while there’s always an undercurrent of easy listening threatening to pull Nascimento’s music down, here his command of his instrument is so on point that he resists that pull strongly enough. I’m churlish enough to wish that Tiki Pasillas had joined them on percussion to give the music an added kick and maybe lift it to the level of Dança dos Tempos, but when a great guitarist wants to sit back and show off without getting showy, I’m not going to complain. Listen and buy here. Grade B+
Tomentosa Tez, JAHZZ – Guitarist/singer Vitor Cozilos Vitor from Fortaleza has released six interesting experimental albums. Here on his seventh he fully connects. Helps that he has some actual songs to play off against. The nod to convention makes the weird noises hit deeper. When the music shifts to waves of sound, a tune pops up to help center things and keep you from nodding off. Spare instrumentation creates a big sense of space, but the distortion reverbing through the arrangements keeps it from feeling empty. The Mateus Fazeno Rock cameo misfires, but everything else is clicks, and the album gains strengths as it goes on, peaking with an Ornette Coleman cover that sounds nothing like the original, which you know Coleman would appreciate. Listen and buy here. Grade: A-
Various Artists, funk.BR – São Paulo (NTS) – Along with sertanejo, funk is the sound of modern day Brazil. But it’s very much a singles game. So label NTS rounds up some of their favorite stuff from São Paulo in a bid to break international the way reggaeton has. And break it may. With raps blending in with the rhythms, verbal meaning seems irrelevant as dance musics make the language barrier less formidable these days. Beats are universal, right? (No, but that’s a longer discussion.) Unlike so much Brazilian stuff, this compilation has garnered some Anglophone attention. But my, perhaps, unqualified, ears have a hard time hearing exactly why. Soundalike tracks tend to blend together into an indistinguishable rush of beats, squiggles, bleeps and raps. When I concentrate hard, I can hear the appeal, but as music for my day this aggravates more than it excites or challenges my ears. Maybe I’m not on the right drugs or at the right party (caffeine and home alone if you are wondering), but I find my attention wandering or just annoyed even if I can hear how someone might make more of this stuff. Grade: B-
Brazil Beat 