Record of the day: Chico Buarque, “Carioca”

Chico Buarque, “Carioca” (Cd Discmedi DM 4215-02)

Chico Buarque sips his record releases alternating them with long periods of silence, recording new songs on the disc solely according to his own creativity, having completely abandoned the logic of the record market, which he never paid too much attention to anyway.

His musical inspiration has become increasingly complex and refined from a compositional point of view, provoking (especially on the occasion of the album “As Cidades”) the resentful reactions of many enthusiasts and also of certain populist critics, who would always like him to be linked to huge mass hits such as “A Banda”, “Roda Viva”, “Meu Caro Amigo” and “Fejioada Complete”. Chico responded with irony to these attacks by declaring: “Everything is fine, as long as they don’t accuse me of composing Musica Impopular Brasileira.”

It had been a long time since Chico had changed, but the clichés of the smiling boy with the guitar slung over his shoulder die hard, despite songs like “Cálice” and “Construcão” having already drawn a different geography of his compositional and poetic talent, showing its harder sides, looking towards oppression and exploitation rather than the colorful Rio carnival. Compared to the latest albums, in any case, “Carioca” uses a much more accessible language, with melodies that are imprinted in the memory after a few listens, such as the single “Renata Maria”, composed together with Ivan Lins, characterized by a serpentine and (as always in Lins’ songs) by a beautiful turn of chords.

The themes of his lyrics continue to remain predominantly very dramatic, with references to the world of drugs and loneliness, but they are framed by a deliberately démodé general sound, devoid of trendy electronic flavors (even when Chico pays homage to the world of rap in “Suburbio” and “Ode Aos Ratos”) which uses the acoustic guitar as the center of gravity, to surround it with melancholic strings, wind instruments with jazz-flavored stiching, many percussions and keyboards multicoloured, all crowned by Chico’s magnificent vocal interpretations, full of pathos and the disenchanted irony typical of this great artist, who no longer has to prove anything to anyone and has chosen to solely follow the compass of his own imagination.

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical topics.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: A record for every day of the year” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.