Search - Maria Bethânia :: Forca Que Nunca Seca

A rather deceiving album

Hugo | Barcelona, Spain | 12/13/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I must say I consider Bethânia as one of the greatest singers ever and in many ways, I feel a little betrayed by this release, where she includes a lot of dreadful material. The ballads "É o amor" and "Espere por mim morena" are probably the worst stuff she has ever recorded: foolish, cheesy balladry, a shame for a genius ballader like her. In fact, I'm not the only one who feels this way: the inclusion of "É o amor" (which is apparently a success in Brazil nowadays) has been considered by many Brazilian critics as a "sin", as you can appreciate in Brazilian Internet sites. The samba-reggae "Não tenha medo" is not much better and the cover of the Villa-Lobos "Trenzinho caipira" is dreadfully arranged. However, this is not a total loss. With the ballad "Cacilda" Bethânia reminds us (siiiiiigghhh!) that she is still the talented singer we used to know. Similarly, the covers of the Brazilian standards "Luar do sertão" and "Romaria", as well as the sambas "Gema" and "Agradecer e abraçar" are quite nice. So if you programm your CD-player to skip the poor material , the result can be quite enjoyable, although not really stunning."