Review Summary: Beautiful...and a tad inconsistent.
MPB (música popular brasileirais/Brazilian popular music) is a genre I was not familiar with at all until I listened to, and started researching, this album and its creator, Nyron Higor. The self-titled debut LP by the Brazilian musician is a very short taste of the relaxing, wavy vibes that this kind of music can conjure up. Drawing influences from bossa nova, jazz, folk, R&B and even minimal bedroom pop, the listener is exposed to a bevy of sounds in the very short 23 minute runtime.
The opener Ciranda is a smooth jazz tune complete with serene sax playing and some dark piano pieces that makes the listener think that this could be some sort of crime jazz album, bringing to mind a bunch of thugs smoking cigs in a pitch black alleyway in the 1950s. However…Nyron Higor decides to take the album in a completely different direction. Most of the rest of the album borders on a pretty unique combo of Brazilian folk music, soulful R&B atmospheres and a still jazzy pop sound. Nyron’s acoustic work is absolutely sublime and intricate at times. The back and forth between the rhythmic acoustics and female vocals provided by Nathalia Grilo on Maravilhamento is one of the major highlights of the album.
Nyron makes use of Brazilian folk instruments such as the cuica and the cavaquinho, which is the instrument that provides all of the great acoustic work. You can feel the pride he has in his homeland and it shows up in the music. The folkier passages are honestly my favorite part of the album. Eu Te Amo is my personal favorite track, with Nyron crooning passionately over the simple hum of the cavaquinho. It's a simple, minimalist and absolutely beautiful piece of music.
My only real gripe about this album is that it’s not really long enough to build up too much momentum. All of the individual traits that I’ve pointed out are all well and good, but I can’t help but feel like Nyron could’ve expanded on some of the ideas here. The jazzier parts could’ve had more runtime if I’m being honest and it feels like the direction changes a lot in such a short amount of time. So much so that it ends up being a tiny detriment to the overall product.
I’m personally excited to see what Nyron comes up with in the future. Like I said, there’s plenty of fantastic moments throughout this album that makes you feel like he’s on the verge of something really special. If anything,
Nyron Higor is a feel-good album that will be a perfect soundtrack to a nice summer day by the pool or on the beach. It has that kind of warm and fuzzy feeling to it. I’m hoping some of these ideas are a bit more fleshed out on his next project. I will be waiting with anticipation!
