Fado Curvo

Album Review

On her first album, Fado em Mim, Mariza covered four songs by the late queen of fado, Amália Rodrigues, drawing a specific parallel to her predecessor. On her second album, Fado Curvo, she covers only one, "Primavera," which may suggest that she is starting to put her inspiration behind her. But she remains true to the traditional sound and mood of fado, even if the album title implies that she is giving it her own twist. Producer Carlos Maria Trindade provides spare, acoustic, and rhythmic arrangements, focusing on the Portuguese guitar of Mário Pacheco, but for the most part he stays out of the singer's way, using the accompaniment merely to anchor her expressive vocals. The lyrical sentiments, conveniently translated in the booklet to the American version of the release (even if a note admonishes, "No literate [literal?] aim at the translation of the poems"), are highly poetic and filled with regret and longing for the past, the better to be interpreted by Mariza's heartrending singing. Even an English speaker struggling with the "literate aim" of those words can get the point of the songs from the arrangements and the singer's tone.