25 August 2020 17:46
1. Bebel Gilberto, Cliché
It’s still a nice cliché, persuasive Brazilian music tinged with shades of melancholy and coffee. And we also need to rethink a bit Diamond life, unforgettable debut of the British soul singer Sade. Which is a bit strange because she was an unknown 25-year-old Anglonigerian, and instead here is the star of what remains of the bossa nova, who grew up in the arms of her father João in the musical elite of Rio and its surroundings. With Now, arrives at the true diva album, glossy but suffered, to be played in the background watching the world from a caipirinha.
2. Sufjan Stevens, Video game
We want to be ours personal redeemer and get out of an existence marked by the playful logic of the digital world, stop submitting our images, ideas and preferences to the approval of virtual friends, letting ourselves be monitored by the usual digital multinationals? Dunno, it seems like a problem of the past – we have others – but in the hands of the genius singer-songwriter from Detroit it becomes an easy ballad almost dream pop, with a gentle homily on it. So promised, we’ll think about it swaying, like the dancer in the video clip.
3. Black Pumas, Confines (live studio)
YouTube, consolation of our summers plundered by live, raves and beans, offers one of the most convincing live performances of recent times, by one of the best bands of this current of black music that comes from Texas (and also passes by Khruang-bin ). The Black Pumas are good at reworking familiar elements: the Marvin Gaye-style “inner city blues” lament, a warm and glossy groove, that voice that makes the ventricles vibrate. Like the excellent debut album of 2019 which reappears in a “deluxe edition” at the end of August with additions like this one.
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