Coisa Boa

It's been 13 years since Moreno Veloso's last album – his debut, Music Typewriter – heralded a new generation of Brazilian musicians. This is, after all, Caetano Veloso's son and that album wowed all with its forward-thinking interpretations of Brazilian styles. All these years later and Coisa Boa is, in contrast, a far more prosaic release, filled with nostalgia for the past, an album by a 42-year-old now looking back rather than forward. Recorded in various studios around the world, as well as at his home (after putting the kids to bed), Coisa Boa is a gentle album, filled with hushed voice, caressing guitar lines and a variety of percussive and electronic sounds that add a muted sense of playfulness to the songs.

This simplicity can go either way. Songs like ‘Jacare Coruja’ and the title-track are essentially lullabies, using simple refrains and strumming patterns to create woozy melodies, yet when Moreno moves away from the naive themes to create slow-moving torch songs, the results can be wearisome. Moreno's priorities these days are his family, rather than creating innovative music, and Coisa Boa, for good or ill, captures that perfectly.