Since releasing the sublime
Cavalo
in 2014, Brazilian singer/songwriter
Rodrigo Amarante
has earned some well-deserved North American hype thanks to the evocative "Tuyo," which he wrote as the theme song for Netflix's drug cartel drama Narcos. A creaky, string-decorated bolero sung in Spanish, it's a typically eclectic offering from an artist who is hard to pin down. Weaving and winding through an array of beguiling rhythms, languages, and tones,
Amarante
's second album,
Drama
, moves between flair and subtlety with a casual grace that feels timeless. From the melodramatic strings-meet-laugh track dichotomy of the opening instrumental to its deceptively breezy art-pop counterpart "Mare,"
casts a spell that remains unbroken for the album's duration. The swooning bossa nova of "Tara" gives way to the haunting clamor of "I Can't Wait," one of several English language cuts from the now Los Angeles-based singer. With its growling horn stacks, "Tao" lays down an inescapable groove and represents
at its most muscular. More than anything,
feels like a Tropicalia artist for the 21st century, artfully fusing Brazilian and Latin American traditions to progressive songwriting and arrangements that touch on pop, psychedelia, folk, and rock. Like a consummate craftsman he folds unexpected details into the whole without a lot of fanfare, which lends the album an undercurrent of excitement and even tension. Leaving the listener with a sense of sweet melancholia,
wraps up with "The End," a dusty-voiced piano ballad that serves as the closing credits to
's captivating journey. ~ Timothy Monger