Customer Reviews

Rough Guide: The Music of Portugal

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This scintillating compilation is yet another resounding Rough Guide success...I was entirely unfamiliar with the musical wonders of Portugal until last week when a friend lent me this CD...and it's been on repeat play ever since!

The centrepiece of the CD, the fado, is musical lyricism at its most polished and poignant, songs of bittersweet yearning and nostalgia, or as the Portuguese say, "saudade". I was hooked from the first note, as are many listeners, by the softly trilling guitarras and the silky vocals, underscored by perennial melancholy.

The CD includes many non-fado highlights, however, such as the medievalesque "Cravo Roxo", the folksy "Contra-Danca 1" and the charming "O Rapaz do Casaquito". Also a great addition is the catchy fado/rock track "Barquinho do Mar".

All in all, this is compilation is among the creme de la creme of Rough Guides, and the satisfaction from the music is doubled by the surprise of discovering something hitherto totally unkown to me. It has my highest recommendation - so go and surprise yourself with it as well.

OK. You know Fado, n'est pas?

1) Yes, and I'm a Fado fan

2) No

If (1) feel free to buy this one, it is a good overview of Fado and more. Madredeus is not here, as well as some other excellent Fado performers but it is still a terrific CD. Also from the same series, I wholeheartedly recommend Guide to Italy, Cuban Son, West Africa, South Africa, Ireland, Scotland, etc...

If (2), welcome. If you like authentic and honest music, feel free to enter beautiful new world of passion and sadness and longing (in a word, Fado). This is probably the best introductory CD you can buy. Of course, there are many more gems to be discovered, but this disc will give you a pretty good idea about what to expect from music of Portugal. The knowledge of Portuguese is not required, the language of music is universal.