Marco Figueira: Brazilliance

Brazilliance is a soft, squashy samba-jazz album. The electric guitars are soft and squashy and the bass is soft and squashy and the sax and piano are soft and squashy and the singer whispers and murmurs in a soft, squashy undertone. He sings in Portuguese. Then he sings in English. “Quiet walks by … quiet … streams …” he croons, and after that there are some lines about these being his hopes and dreams and how much he’d like to die here. Gruesome. Listen to this album, it’s as if you’ve landed with both feet in the Swamp of Soothe and the suction is slowly pulling you under. Brazilliance should come in handy if you’ve got a café that needs background mood music (you can almost hear the plates tinkle modestly as it plays, and well-fed voices talking about the latest arthouse flick) or if you feel like falling asleep in your hammock on a warm day, lulled by an album that wants nothing more than to make you relax.