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Momento

by

Bebel Gilberto

 
Momento
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Avg: 3.5 (23 ratings)

The next best thing to drowsing on a beach under the Caribbean sun as wavelets lick your toes.

  • We Say...

    Review by Adam Sweeting

    This is only her third album in seven years, so Bebel Gilberto is clearly in no hurry. But that’s the point, since her music is the next best thing to drowsing on a beach under the Caribbean sun as wavelets lick your toes. If it’s possible to concoct a perfect fusion of South American rhythms, discreet electronica and succulent pop melodies, Gilberto pulls it off here.

    She immediately establishes a mood of breezy, blue-sky insouciance with the title tune, its Latin lilt enhanced by crafty synthesized squiggles, and sustains it (via careful modulations of tone and tempo) through to the simple voice-and-guitar closer, "Words." "Bring Back the Love" brings Rio to clubland with its whomping techno beats, but connoisseurs will spot echoes of her dad João and stepmom Astrud in her seductive take on Cole Porter’s "Night and Day" or the minimal guitar-and-percussion bossa nova of "Um Segundo." But leaving aside all the guest musicians and production wizardry, it’s the sensual glide of Gilberto’s voice, with its delicious Portuguese huskiness, that makes her irresistible.

  • They Say...

    Review by Marisa Brown, All Music Guide

    On her self-titled 2004 sophomore album, Bebel Gilberto ditched the loungey grooves she explored on her debut and stuck to mostly acoustic elements -- guitars, percussion, strings -- to complement her voice, but her next release, Momento, finds the singer returning to both electronica and more traditional bossa nova. Gilberto is still, of course, thoroughly modern, with a much more lush, produced sound than her predecessors had (including her father), but it works for her, the overall gentle ambiance she's trying to create, even when she's singing old favorites. In Chico Buarque's lovely "Caçada," she adds more bass to the underbelly of the song and lets the woodwinds play a bigger role, and the cover of Cole Porter's "Night and Day" comes off well, gentle, and with a jazzy tenor sax solo. In fact, it's when Gilberto stays simple, and looks more closely at her roots for inspiration, that she sounds the best. It's her ventures into the Rio lounge world that are less interesting, safe to a fault. Gilberto's unfortunately perfected the Brazilian version of smooth jazz or adult contemporary, shown all too clearly on songs like "Cadê Você" or "Bring Back the Love" (which features all four members from the non-Brazilian Brazilian Girls), with their programmed drums and keyboards layered behind her voice. It's too much, too clean, too pretty, sounding nice but nothing more. To be fair, the singer has never tried nor claimed to be cutting-edge, or to challenge her audience, but tracks like "Close to You" and "Momento" are so inoffensive they're hard to pay much attention to. It's very possible to be both memorable and smooth, remarkable and mild (and this is something Gilberto is capable of, like on the sparse "Um Segundo" or the mellow "Os Novos Yorkinos," for example), but more often than not, Momento ends up a shallow listen. This CD was nominated for a Grammy award in 2007 for Best Contemporary World Music Album.

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