Twenty-five years after his opening album Manera, Fru-Fru, Manera, Fagner commemorates his highly successful career interpreting old hits sided by important or successful artists as guest stars: the fundamental samba singer Ângela Maria; the decisive composer Chico Buarque; the selling phenomenon Zezé di Camargo e Luciano; the important composers/performers Djavan, Luís Melodia, and Milton Nascimento; the great interpreter Emílio Santiago; and several others. While his voice was once aggressive and uncultivated, mirroring the poverty and genuine roots of his northeast region -- which worked exceptionally well in establishing his identity as a unique artist -- now he approaches music with the surgical precision of the businessman, and his singing resents from taming. The arrangements, some orchestral, excellent if much too mainstream, reinforce the character of a good MPB album -- not a Fagner release. "Mucuripe," a Henrique Vogeler tune, continues to be credited as having being written by Fagner and Belchior.
© Alvaro Neder /TiVo