‘Deixa’ is the first track, and it opens on electronic chill-out and the sound of coins falling. Cibelle’s voice is smooth like chocolate. She’s been compared to Bebel Gilberto, but she doesn’t have the breathy, husky quality of her contemporary. In some respects she’s more like Astrud Gilberto, who was married to Bebel’s father, João. But there are times when Cibelle does resemble Bebel, and ‘Deixa’ is one such example. It’s a modern, twenty-first century track, sung in Portuguese.

A strong Latin acoustic guitar leads on ‘Só sei viver no samba.’ It’s a modern samba one of the best songs on the album. ‘Hate’ is the first English language track (the album is about half and half.) It’s a pop song with a wonderfully catchy chorus, dealing with the contrariness of emotion:

“I hate you so bad when I love you.”

‘Luisas’ is one of the highlights of the album. The intro is sublime, lazy, chill-out, a kind of musical heaven. Cibelle’s voice is silky smooth, laid back. The song mixes Portuguese with a little English.

‘Waiting’ is the song with the fridge and cash register mixed in as ambient samples. It’s a cool stripped down jazz track with an electronic sound, laid over a hypnotic repetitive bass. The percussion plays through like a pulse beat, and it layers on more instruments towards the end.

‘No Prego’ has a wonderful cinematic sampling intro that fades in and out throughout the song. This melody is completely at odds with the song itself, which is upbeat Latin, with a chaotic style at times. There’s rapping, a bit of jazz, a trombone, and sometimes it sounds like she’s being backed up by a crowd. Somehow, out of this mix, one of the best and most memorable songs on the album emerges. It’s an energetic song that it is also laid back. ‘No Prego’ is a mass of contradictions.

‘I’ll Be’ moves into a more soulful sound.

“I’ll let you live inside of me
let me give you a daughter
Feel life through my skin
See the world through my eyes”

It’s followed by another of the album’s gems, ‘Train.’ Mostly in English, it also incorporates French lyrics and is one of the more conventional tracks, certainly in comparison to ‘No Prego.’ ‘Inútil paisagem,’ with music written by Antonio Carlos Jobim, is a beautiful down beat bossa track sung with Johnny Alf, whose vocal style brings to mind the likes of Louis Armstrong. It’s a classic sound, reminiscent of old records from a few decades ago, but it’s been given a modern treatment.

‘Um só segundo’ begins with an ambient intro and beat, until Cibelle’s voice comes in. This is a dreamy electronic track with strong percussion which later swells into a more complex sound. The final track is ‘Pequenos olhos,’ a slow Latin jazz song, with a very simple, stripped down sound. Cibelle speaks towards the end, softly, intimately, until the closing notes. This apparent down beat end to the album is contradicted some minutes later for those who don’t switch off the CD straight away. After a few minute’s silence what appears to be a scratchy recording from the thirties suddenly comes on, ‘Sugar Pie.’ However, it’s Cibelle herself, singing and laughing to a piano backing. This classic but playful conclusion sums up the record as a whole. For any fan of Brazilian, jazz, chill-out or pop music, 'Cibelle’ is well worth a listen. It has the classic status of ‘Tanto Tempo’ but a character all of its own.

Kara Kellar Bell is a film and media graduate from the West of Scotland, with a passion for European novels, French films, silent cinema, and Brazilian music (everything from Daniela Mercury and other pop stars through to bossa nova). As a writer, she likes to have room to move around creatively, so she’s not located in one genre. She writes realism and also stories of a more fantastic nature, usually grounded to some extent in the real world. She also takes delight in writing across the sexual spectrum, and as a bisexual, considers it important to remind people that things are not always black and white, either/or, in sexuality or in gender. She is currently completing her first novel. For a selection of Kara’s writing on the Showcase section of this site, click here

© 2004 Laura Hird All rights reserved.