Editorial Review:

Album Description:
The seventh album from the Brasilian pop phenomenon daughter of a director of the Portela school of samba concentrates on just that: Sambas! The first instrument she played was the drums, but her rise to stardom is built on her intricate vocals and songwriting talents. (She also happens to be a quite competent on guitar and in a studio production booth).

Amazon.com:
Since her father was a director of Portela, one of Rio's most prominent escolas de samba (samba schools -- the huge, wildly costumed gatherings of percussionists, instrumentalists, singers, and dancers that make the annual carnival so unforgettable), Brazil's most-famous export is obviously in Marisa Monte's very blood. Thus, it's surprising that she's only now gotten around to recording an album completely dedicated to the style, but happily, it's turned out to be worth the wait. She wraps her dulcet, spicy mezzo-soprano, with its clarinet-like timbre that sometimes recalls that of Gal Costa, around a well-chosen set of hip-swinging charmers, accompanied by traditional instruments like cavaquinho (a harp-like small guitar) and assorted drums and shakers long associated with the genre, plus tubas, woodwinds, strings, nostalgic Fender Rhodes organs, and, notably, the guitar of Paulinho da Viola. Songwriters of various periods are represented, including Jayme Silva from the fifties, Moraes Moreira from the 1960s, and for modern times, Carlinhos Brown and the singer herself. Hers is the kind of artistry that awes as it soothes; it draws no attention to itself yet every song flows into another like pearls on a string. Lushly sensual and suavely intimate, the lady could melt a heart of stone. --Christina Roden









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Disc 1:

1. Universo ao Meu Redor - Marisa Monte, Monte, Marisa
2. O Bonde Do Dom - Marisa Monte, Antunes, Arnaldo
3. Meu Canário - Marisa Monte, Silva, Jayme
4. Três Letrinhas - Marisa Monte, Moreira, Moraes
5. Quatro Paredes - Marisa Monte, Monte, Marisa
6. Perdoa, Meu Amor - Marisa Monte, Vieira, Casemiro
7. Cantinho Escondido - Marisa Monte, Brown, Carlinhos
8. Statue of Liberty - Marisa Monte, Byne, David
9. Al Alma E a Matéria - Marisa Monte, Brown, Carlinhos
10. Làgrimas E Tormentos - Marisa Monte, Patrocínio, Argemir
11. Satisfeito - Marisa Monte, Antunes, Arnaldo
12. Para Mais Ninguém - Marisa Monte, DaViola, Paulinho
13. Via Saber? - Marisa Monte, Calcanhotto, Adrian
14. Pétalas Esquecidas - Marisa Monte, Lara, Dona Ivone

Rating: - If you like bossa nova, you'll probably like this album
Marisa Monte has an amazingly beautiful voice, one that's perfect to listen to while you're lounging w/ a glass of wine, with a nice, warm breeze in the air. You can listen straight through this album, and for those bossa nova fans out there, you'll probably like this...it's a must-buy.

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Rating: - Um dos melhores
A musica Brasileira e demais!!!!! I love it!!!! It has lots of songs that i love. it was a great choice.

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Rating: - her best!
Con: track 8 is a nightmare :-(
Pro: track 8 only lasts 1:13........and the rest of the album is fantastic! ;-)

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Rating: - Accessible but slightly overproduced.
A leading figure in Brazilian pop for 15 years, Marisa Monte had her biggest hit with the collaborative project "Tribalistas" (2002), and these simultaneously released albums are her first solo works since 2000.
"Universo ao Meu Redor" is the more accessible, a slightly overproduced chamber pop project casting a fond ear over more than 50 years of samba history."Universo Au Meu Redor" (The Universe Around Me) came from Monte's loving investigation of classic samba from the 1940s and '50s, which is more lyrical than the revved-up carnival version familiar to most North Americans.
For "Universo" she interviewed older samba artists and their families and collaborators, producing songs that had never been recorded and writing new ones inspired by a different musical era and ethos with which she felt much in common.

Highlights include undiscovered gems such as the instantly memorable "Meu Canario" and "Perdoa Meu Amor", with its luminous harp and cavaquinho (Brazilian ukulele) duet.
There is even a dutifully desafinado (out of tune) cameo by David Byrne on "Statue of Liberty".

Monte's other new record, "Infinito Particular" (Infinite Private) was the result of two years of cataloging and organizing 15 years of Monte's own music.
The initial goal was to digitally record work she had on paper or cassette. But it became an elaborate musical and personal journey. Monte invited several musicians, including American composer Phillip Glass, to do arrangements for a simple quartet -- cello, bassoon, violin and trumpet, seeking new sounds and new meaning from her music.
In few words, it consists of previously abandoned or finished-and-forgotten originals co-written throughout Monte's career.
Despite several slow growers, neither her extraordinary honeyed vocals, nor Alê Siqueira's inventive production, can quite distract from the sense that these are immaculately dressed off-cuts.

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Rating: - Wonderful!
This album is beautiful (except track 8). My favorite Brazilian music CD of all time.