Welcome to our annual coverage of the Latin Grammy Best New Artist nominees! Today and tomorrow we’ll be reviewing the singles of the contenders we haven’t covered yet. First up, a Brazilian telenovela actress-turned-singer…
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[5.86]
Jonathan Bogart: Caffeinated jangle-pop of a sort nearly two decades out of date in the Anglosphere, with lyrics that read like a child’s idea of sexiness, would not have been my first pick for a song that would make me smile this week, but I am a deep, deep sucker for caffeinated jangle-pop, and the lyrics being in Portuguese makes them sound slightly more sophisticated than they are. And, frankly, this week being what it is, I could use anything that will make me smile.
[7]
Katie Gill: Those drums, guitars and harmonies sound like Abrahão wrote a song to play during the opening credits of a rom-com, run through a layer of mid-2000s “Soak Up The Sun” for added emphasis. And I am 100% here for this. It’s bright and fun and cheery. I didn’t even know I missed that sort of pseudo-genre until Abrahão reminded me of how much I loved it in the first place!
[8]
Alfred Soto: The swelling guitars and flippy-floppy drums suggest a vision of pop that America has abandoned. It has its charms, like many tracks with mild-voiced singers.
[6]
Juana Giaimo: Easy-going music has an advantage: it can never really be bothersome and is guaranteed a big audience. But it also has the cost of being highly forgettable unless you have a distinctive element — I’m thinking of Julieta Venegas’ accordion and her slightly raspy voice. Also, I might not get all the words very well, but “Sou Fatal” doesn’t seem to be the best lyrics for an acoustic, upbeat and plain song like this.
[5]
Cassy Gress: I don’t really buy that she’s fatal (in the stabby sense or the succubus sense), and I can’t tell whether that’s her fault for having slightly too heavy of a voice for this jangling 2001-ish acoustic pop, or whether it’s the song’s fault for being insufficiently dark.
[4]
Will Adams: Sunny pop-rock that recalls the era of Hoku. The vocal tracks carry the weight, though, while everything else is set to cruise control.
[5]
Iain Mew: Warm and lazy and the perfect soundtrack for a long afternoon stretching into evening with little to do, at least if it’s one where you can’t be bothered to get up and put on something that does a bit more.
[6]