"Baby"

It's nearly shocking, the simplicity: a muddled, slightly granulated B&W as an album cover for Brazil¹s modern Athena. It's so basic, in fact, you have to stop and look; her soft smile, delicate sunbeams lighting the upper right corner, her name in pink and off-pink with the most basic Photoshop element¬ a solar flare ¬ lighting up "Be" in her name. Like Bebel Gilberto's music, the cover precedes the sound: comforting, reassuring and distinguished, her sophomore effort continues where 2000's Tanto Tempo left off. Thank goodness for that.

Gilberto is an organic princess in a digital world. Her debut rocked a million cafes worldwide, the airy sounds of nighttime bossa hummed by countless baristas and patrons in chorus. Nodding her head to futurism, Gilberto allowed an entire remix album and garnered equally successful results. With a few phone calls to DJs she became queen of the club, and here we could insert the unending comparative opposites but will rest assured in merely one: like the continual play of sunshine and moonbeam, Gilberto's gorgeous voice swoons the hearts of many.

It was in her bloodline, certainly, this daughter of Brazil's infamous João Gilberto and Miúcha. Genetics and passion--both equate into an algorithmic biology destined for heartbreakingly beautiful ballads and poignant electronic cuts. As quick with the pen as PR smile, Bebel wrote 9 of the 12 tracks on the-record-of-the-same-name. She opens with old family friend Caetano Veloso's "Baby," who worked this alongside alterna-psych Os Mutantes back in the day. It's a cute number, but Gilberto has an auspicious habit of losing touch in English; her Portuguese (and, admittedly, Portu-glish) work far better.

Track two, "Simplesmente," proves this didactic hypothesis. Shadowboxing linguistics, her back-and-forth is where the aural hypnosis begins. Her ballads remain the selling point (as with Tanto Tempo), but when turning digital ¬ the rolling percussion on the Carlinhos Brown's "Aganjú" and "Cada Beijo," ¬ Gilberto expands past the dreamlike acoustic realm into the computer symphonic. Both worlds suit her well; few write four-minute standards so elegantly.

Contributed by: Derek Beres for www.afropop.org