Blame Brazil! (I) MARISA MONTE in the downward spiral
When you believe Arts is a priviledge of some enlightened bunch (and the rest, simply, don t know what they are doing whereas they are performing arts), then you get MARISA MONTE narcisistic musical approach.
Once upon a time an opera singer, always daughter of Portela Samba School s arranger, MARISA MONTE for a moment seemed poised for the missing link between good and old Popular Brazilian Music (MPB) and World Music-infused Pop. That was...1989. URSS was still alive.
Now, 6 years in absence of a solo CD (not counting the populist Tribalistas record from 2003), MARISA MONTE gets everything wrong.
She spawned simultaneously a pop record (Infinito Particular, 'particular infinite') and a Samba record (Universo Ao Meu Redor, 'universe all around me'). Both loaded with egocentric titles and indulgent content.
Not a Samba singer of great stature, her pros always rested on Pop renditions of MPB classics and some fresh-up new additions to the canon, by neo-revivalists like NANDO REIS.
However, in Infinito Particular, instead of reinvention or strenghtened bread-and-butter, MARISA outpours dry-bone generics of her quintessence. Adding offense to injury, the record was promoted as her 'creative emancipation', she would be penning all compositions for the first time. Check the never-ending collaborators list and bemuse: not a single 'MARISA MONTE' credit is present...
Trading craftmanship for ukeleles, strings and Drum N Bass standard arrangements, MARISA MONTE desperately seeks the bloody veins and ecleticism of newcomers FERNANDA PORTO, KARINE ALEXANDRINO, OLIVIA, new media and popular darling VANESSA DA MATA. Especially, she sook for what BEBEL GILBERTO achieved recently.
MARISA MONTE running at barks, after the cars, is the scene no one would believe, 15 years ago. Once, she wanted to be the new GAL COSTA. 60-plus years GAL seems rejuvenated with Drum N Bass and young composers. MARISA seeks for a premature retirement.
Vilarejo ('Village') manages to convert a 40-year old gifted singer into a sexagenary has-been. With lyrics such as 'There s a place for everyone that far/Palestine, Shan-Gri-La' one can t expect for laughing...That one was composed alongside Bossa Nova dead-ringer Lesbian diva ADRIANA CALCANHOTO (!).
Consider Pernambucobucolismo. Fusing the state of Pernambuco with 'bucolism' seems funny no? Specially with a song dedicated to CAETANO VELOSO s exile in London. No Maracatu and MARISA confused the exile imposed by the military dictatorship with a hippie idealistic carnival of sorts. Oh...People, get ready! The whole thing is that snide and pedestrian. And stands beneath even her new clichés often composed under the auspices of old fellas CARLINHOS BROWN (WILL SMITH under the Ecuador) and ARNALDO ANTUNES (DAVID BYRNE with diminished ego and compulsive ideas). You can blame RODRIGO CAMPELLO (who?) for that 'pearl'. Pearlnambuco?
OK, there s only a hint of things to come with this morose, sedated CD recorded before the sea on a cloudy day with none to be seen in 40 miles at least.
