NO JARDIM DA CELESTE

The band seems to have settled into a more commercially-appealing and polished groove on their fifth album. This was the eighties however, so nothing get held too much against anything a prog band did in the first few years of this decade. There’s another change in vocals, with the exotic and seductive Né Ladeiras showing up in front of the microphone for this and the band’s next album as well.

The album and artwork seem to signal a schmaltzy pop-folk release, but on “Estranha Força” the harmonizing vocals, strings and Latin ethnic percussion surface again and the band for the starts to redeem themselves, but only briefly. “Barquinha de Lua” follows with those distinctive, pulsating and vaguely Moroccan-influenced cadences that distinguish so much Portuguese music. Ms. Ladeiras’ vocals are especially intoxicating here.

“Ai se a Luzia” wanders back into pop-folk territory, but the languid strings and haunting vocals on “Liliana Nibelunga” before the song explodes into a brackish vocal dirge that actually turns out to be pretty entertaining, if not progressive in any real sense.

The charming vocals and acoustic trappings of “Madrasta” are the high point of the album, while “É Ouvi-los” employs some odd metering and funky bass that are distinctly eighties and not all that memorable.

This is a rather unexceptional album in total, and while the addition of Ms. Ladeiras’ vocals are a welcome improvement, the overall package is not as good as any of their previous material. The band is clearly on the decline, and in fact would disband after just two more studio albums. This is pretty much a two-star effort, and recommended only to the band’s ardent fans.

peace