Track Listing

1. Universo ao Meu Redor
2. O Bonde Do Dom
3. Meu Canário
4. Três Letrinhas
5. Quatro Paredes
6. Perdoa, Meu Amor
7. Cantinho Escondido
8. Statue of Liberty
9. Al Alma E a Matéria
10. Làgrimas E Tormentos
11. Satisfeito
12. Para Mais Ninguém
13. Via Saber?
14. Pétalas Esquecidas

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64450 in Music
• Released on: 2006-05-29
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
The seventh album from the Brasilian pop phenomenon daughter of a director of the Portela school of samba concentrates on just that: Sambas! The first instrument she played was the drums, but her rise to stardom is built on her intricate vocals and songwriting talents. (She also happens to be a quite competent on guitar and in a studio production booth).

Amazon.com
Since her father was a director of Portela, one of Rio's most prominent escolas de samba (samba schools -- the huge, wildly costumed gatherings of percussionists, instrumentalists, singers, and dancers that make the annual carnival so unforgettable), Brazil's most-famous export is obviously in Marisa Monte's very blood. Thus, it's surprising that she's only now gotten around to recording an album completely dedicated to the style, but happily, it's turned out to be worth the wait. She wraps her dulcet, spicy mezzo-soprano, with its clarinet-like timbre that sometimes recalls that of Gal Costa, around a well-chosen set of hip-swinging charmers, accompanied by traditional instruments like cavaquinho (a harp-like small guitar) and assorted drums and shakers long associated with the genre, plus tubas, woodwinds, strings, nostalgic Fender Rhodes organs, and, notably, the guitar of Paulinho da Viola. Songwriters of various periods are represented, including Jayme Silva from the fifties, Moraes Moreira from the 1960s, and for modern times, Carlinhos Brown and the singer herself. Hers is the kind of artistry that awes as it soothes; it draws no attention to itself yet every song flows into another like pearls on a string. Lushly sensual and suavely intimate, the lady could melt a heart of stone. --Christina Roden

Customer Reviews

Hyper-clever arrangements detract
Marisa Monte's voice and phrasing are as warm and beautiful here as you'd expect from her previous CDs. What makes this release cold and unsatisfying is its lack of any feeling of rapport between MM and anyone else on the album. It's not uncommon in the music industry for instruments to be recorded long after the vocal tracks, but this album really *sounds* that way.

Sadly, the arrangements are also way too self-conscious and arch. David Byrne didn't produce the album, but appears on its weakest track ("Statue of Liberty"), and seems to have inspired the producers to approach the material with inappropriate irony. Electronica sound effects and campy retro electronic keyboards clutter up too many of these simple and soaring melodies. The sensational "Perdoa meu amor" from the 1940s might have sounded great with a harp in one channel, but instead two competing harp tracks goop up the song with too much of a good thing. MM herself is credited as a producer, and must share the blame.

"Infinito particular", which MM released simultaneously with this album, is a marginally more musical choice, though it lacks any track where the musicians let loose and have fun -- a big contrast from her earlier CDs. Don't pay full price for either of these new releases. If you're new to her music, her album from 2000, "Memories, Chronicles and Declarations of Love", is a five-star alternative you won't regret.

universo particular
This CD is not similar to any of MM's previous albums because it consists solely of samba carioca. There are no emotionally charged or heart-wrenching MPB songs. But this is samba carioca and one shouldn't expect such an atmosphere. As is, it is a very well recorded and innovative samba album and is well-suited for dancing samba. This album has less commercial appeal than her concurrently released Infinito Particular. Overall it's a subtle and pleasant listen although becomes monotonous by the end of the album.
Also, please note that MM has sung plenty of samba carioca throughout her career to good effect. For example, see Para Ver As Meninas from her album Memorias, Cronicas, e Declaracoes de Amor, a lovely samba that would fit in very well on this album.
Recommended for those who enjoy samba carioca or are huge Marisa Monte fans.

Floating on a Cloud over Rio
The editorial and the opinion of the Glasgow reviewer describe sufficiently this blissfully mellow yet varied CD, but as there is yet only one public review, I wish to concur that it would be a worthy purchase for anyone interested in contemporary Brazilian music firmly rooted in core samba. Bryne's thankfully brief and single incursion sticks out as a bump in the road, and contributes nothing but a distraction. Monte's voice is absolutely perfect for the gentle samba, and the arrangements, for added interest, are unusually complex in instrumentation, such as tuba, marimba, bell, ukulele, harp, theremin, and basson, while dispensing with the traditional heavy drum percussion. The inventiveness and sweetness endures through repeated listening (8 times already!). Great dinner and evening music. Buy it! 4 and 1/2 stars, actually, because of that Byrne blip.