The expectations for
Fernanda Porto's second album were rather high, as her eponymous debut was very much liked by the critics and also rather successful commercially. On
Giramundo,
Porto surprisingly abandons many of the
electronic sounds and beats that propelled her to fame two years earlier. Instead she opted for a more organic
pop sound. The electronics are still there, though (on some tracks more than others), but they function more as a complementary spice added to perfect the music, rather than being the fundamental base on which everything else rests, as was the case on her first album. The
drum'n'bass is also still present on some tracks, though the beats are mostly organic (
Porto herself calls this acoustic
drum'n'bass). Helping to create this new sound are bassist
Doug Wimbish and drummer
Will Calhoun from the American
rock band
Living Colour, who perform on almost all the tracks. Although the listener might not think of it as such,
Porto's first album was stylistically quite diverse. But the
electronic sound very effectively bound the different styles together, making the album sound homogenous.
Giramundo isn't really that much more "eclectic" than the previous album, but the fact that
Porto has scaled down the use of
electronica accentuates the differences between the various moods and styles of the tracks. This, in turn, makes the album feel less coherent. But what matters the most is that
Porto has maintained the high quality and elegance that made her debut so strong, even though the musical presentation has changed.
Giramundo contains nice and catchy
pop songs as the
reggae of
"De Graca," and the
electronic ijexa (a popular Brazilian rhythm) of the title track. There are also three very slick
ballads, with
"Bicho do Mato" having the same kind of melodic fluency as the popular
"Vilarejo Intimo" from her first album. Of the two or three tracks that mix
drum'n'bass with
rock,
"Pensamento 4" was co-written by the
rock poet
Arnaldo Antunes. The much respected
samba and
bossa nova composer
Chico Buarque lends his voice to
"Roda Viva" (one of his own compositions), which
Porto has turned in to a rather frenetic
drum'n'bass tune. That version of
"Roda Viva," plus two other interpretations of
Chico Buarque songs, are scheduled to appear on
Fernanda Porto's
soundtrack to the film
Cabra Cega, by
Toni Venturi. One or two songs do not reach the same high standard as the rest, and perhaps they slightly weaken the positive overall impression, but
Giramundo still confirms
Fernanda Porto's status as one of the most talented artists of the current Brazilian
pop scene. ~ Philip Jandovsky
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