Tribalistas

by Philip JandovskýThe hype that was built up before the release of this joint effort by Arnaldo Antunes, Marisa Monte, and Carlinhos Brown was enormous. Luckily, the trio delivered and fulfilled all expectations, although perhaps in a different way than many people had anticipated. Tribalistas is a very good but simple and unpretentious record. The music consists of straightforward, largely acoustic, and very attractive pop songs sung by Marisa Monte and Arnaldo Antunes. The beautiful voice of Monte interacts in an interesting and fairly unusual way with the masculine, often guttural singing of Antunes. The album production by Monte and Alê Siqueira is very tasteful, and the sparse but elegant electronic backing and special effects contribute to make the music sound fresh and different. The musical focus of Tribalistas always lies in the strong melodies, both on the faster tracks -- as, for example, the captivating "Carnavália" and "Passe Em Casa" -- and the percussion-less ballads, such as "É Você" and "O Amor E Feio."