On her first album,
Fado em Mim
,
Mariza
covered four songs by the late queen of
fado
Amalia 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
, 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
Mario 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
'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. ~ William Ruhlmann