Neguinha Te Amo

Neguinha Te Amo is the sophomore album from Daude, the first artist to mix MPB with a heavy dose of club beats and loops. As an extremely rare black woman on the MPB scene, she takes racial issues to heart in her lyrics, forming a good deal around pride in herself and her compatriots. Lyrical content aside, this is musically a very exciting album, updating the lazy samba and idioms of MPB with thick, thumping beats. The beats occasionally come heavily informed by African forms, but usually they're presented in a very slick manner, making the best use possible of high production values. This is a very urban music, much more Rio than Bahia, more city than beach, and is on the verge of Euro at its most highly produced points. Daude's vocals can decently move between powerful and playful, fitting the songs as necessary, and the album benefits from it with coherence. The tracks bounce from jazzy motifs to tracks from the dancehall proper, always keeping a slick edge. Perhaps one of the best highlights here is the duet with Jorge BenJor on "Crioula," mixing the old and new innovators of MPB with an endearing vocal give and take. For the current directions being taken to renovate what was becoming an otherwise somewhat stale genre, this is an excellent album to pick up.