Cibelle in Bloomington, MN

The debut album from the Brazilian singer made semi-famous as the voice on Yugoslavian/Brazilian pianist
Suba
's hit album. The lyrics and songs are essentially all written by
Cibelle
over the course of a few months surrounding the creation of the album, and the sound was engineered by
along with
Apollo 9
, an up-and-coming Brazilian producer. To add to the pot, a couple of the musical minds behind
Morcheeba
lent a hand in the process. The songs are in large part
ballads
, capitalizing on
's outstanding voice. There is a stray
samba
involved (as must be done in any proper Brazilian album),
"So Vei Viver No Samba."
There's a bit of clumsy rapping involved too, clumsy more from lack of experience than from a lack of rapping ability. It's when she gets into a basic, groove-thick
ballad
that
really shines here. Equally capable in Portuguese and English, she can move the tracks forward almost entirely by her voice, with some decent, if not shining, backing sounds ranging from the basic string arrangements to bits of birdcalls and city sounds. Overall, it's not a bad album at all, with a thoroughly laid-back sensibility. For something that lays somewhere between
and progressive
MPB
, this isn't a bad way to go. ~ Adam Greenberg