About this Artist

• Biography

Editorial Reviews

Cássia Eller came from a humble past as cooker and mason assistant, becoming a success in pop music, selling about 200,000 copies of each of her albums with her strong appeal among the legions of outcasts - she struggles for respectability, being homosexual. This album, the seventh in her career, and the best sold (having been also nominated for several categories of the 1st. Latin Grammy), proposes a new Cássia Eller. With her aggressive singing smoothed in an album dedicated to love, more elaborated and sophisticated arrangements, sensual/nude photos of her in the inlay, the presence of a string section, arrangers, producers, musicians and composers from the first team of MPB, everything betrays the wish of transforming her in the new muse of the first team of MPB. But not everything is lost. The approach may bring some advantages. Sometimes, playing innocent Brazilian grooves can be more revolutionary a deed than repeating the indignation of Londonian punk rockers. And the album enacts an approximation with the Brazilian universe.

Only new songs here. Opening with "O segundo sol," a good pop song by Nando Reis (former husband of Marisa Monte, co-producer of this album), follows "Mapa do meu nada," by Carlinhos Brown, with his usual weak lyrics. "Gatas extraordinárias" is quite recognizable as a Caetano Veloso tune, reinforcing the Brazilian character. "Um branco, um xis, um zero," a pop song by Marisa Monte/Arnaldo Antunes/Pepeu Gomes, talks about a former lover whose smell one doesn't forget. Pretty conventional. The "rebellious" touch is a fuzzed out guitar solo, inspired in Cássia's adoration for Kurt Cobain's sound. "O meu mundo ficaria completo" is another pop song with disposable love lyrics, but there are congas there. "Palavras ao vento" is a pop ballad. Then the big surprise. "Aprendiz de feiticeiro" (Itamar Assumpção) is a funk groove topped with an embolada-like melody, substituted by a baião melody at the bridge; Chiquinho Chagas plays an irresistible accordion, mixing the Northeastern Brazilian sonorities to the American musical idioms, finishing in an unmistakable baião with comme il faut zabumbas. "Pedra gigante" (Gilberto Gil/Bené Fonteles) brings more MPB sounds together with the crude, metallic, nasal singing of Cássia's mother (a former professional singer), Nanci Ribeiro. "Maluca" brings tango overtones, keeping an eye open for Mercosul, but at the same time recalling our latinidad. For its soft lyrics, one couldn't infer that they were written by a sufferer of AIDS who hadn't made it to his first album yet, Luiz Capucho. Not by accident, the best track of the album is by Luiz Melodia (with Renato Piau), a samba played as jazz, with brass/reed/wood/rhythm sections: "Esse filme eu já vi." For the first time, she felt secure to emit the first improvised vocalizes, together with the sax solo. If this album pointed to something better, was to the trend began in the 90's in Brazilian music: a recuperation of the melodic/harmonic and improvising qualities of MPB. Alvaro Neder, All Music Guide

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