Pontos de Passagem

Fado Malvado are a Portuguese quartet that focus on the musical bond between an accordion, a pair of guitars and the occasional voice. Any assumption that there is a thread of fado running through their songs is, therefore, a hasty one. In fact, the melancholic tone that splashes all over their debut Pontos de Passagem owes more to the music of Yann Tiersen or Rodrigo Leão than to any disciple of Amália Rodrigues. Their amalgamation of sounds and geographies often summons up French band L’Attirail – although in a less intense version.

Oscillating between instrumentals and songs, Fado Malvado are clearly still searching for their own space. Take ‘Baralho’, for instance, which is half a dozen ideas sown together that never amount to become a solid tune. And it is also hard to make sense of such disparate songs as the poppy ‘Travessia’, the indie-tinged (Patrick Watson-style) ‘Tudo’ and the more effective and handsome ‘Cor do Neutro’, shaped by a Portuguese traditional form. Leaning more to a jazzy or poppy approach, Fado Malvado sound like they want to be several bands at once. And that, per se, would not be problematic if it led to a more acute display of creativity. Sadly, the various pieces of Pontos de Passagem don't seem to fit together. And they never work as a revelation.