Drama

Description

You may already know Rodrigo Amarante. You may have heard “Tuyo,” his theme song for the Netflix drama Narcos, or the album Little Joy, recorded with Fab Moretti and Binki Shapiro; you may have noticed his name among the credits on songs by Gal Costa, Norah Jones and Gilberto Gil; or perhaps you saw him perform live with the Brazilian samba big band Orquestra Imperial, or with the Rio rockers Los Hermanos; you really should have heard his first album, Cavalo, released in 2014. You may think you already know Rodrigo Amarante, but Drama, his second solo album, is going to introduce a whole new level of confusion. Drama is deliberately caricatural, cinematic; “As biased as memory.” It flows like an arc, playfully deceptive, like a tale. The unsettling opening number gives you a clue that things may not be what they seem and that clues are hiding in plain sight. “Projection, attachment, deception: that’s drama.” The sunny, upbeat start of “Maré,” with an almost childlike opening melody, echoes something less naive: “The tide goes looking for what the ebb brings.” The rhythm helps you along. “Tango” sounds like falling in love on the dance floor, warm and tropical; it celebrates camaraderie, while perhaps longing for it. “Tara,” meanwhile, feels like something Astrud Gilberto might have sung at the height of bossa nova’s worldwide popularity, with the twist of muted big-band-era horns on the chorus, almost self-deprecating, as if mocking such idealized enthusiasm. “Eight years after Cavalo, the Brazilian artist announces the album Drama” --- FIP --- “A masterpiece of acoustic Brazilianism.” --- NOVA --- “A small event that reminds us of our days spent listening to Cavalo.” --- LES INROCKUPTIBLES ---