Rosa e Azul

The last time Songlines reviewed Alliye was for her 2006 release Arrebol, when she was living in Paris as Aline de Lima and playing pretty bossa nova. Rosa e Azul is a turnaround: as heartfelt and sophisticated as Arrebol was seductive and simple. While there’s a sprinkling of sultry songs in French to please her Eurofans, the best of this CD sees Alliye free of label constraints and playing the music that really matters to her. Considered, complex and filled with a rage at the state of contemporary Brazil, it is a tour de force; a CD of darkness and depth by an artist at the height of her maturity.

Songs like ‘Beira Mar’ and ‘A Elite’ – with their mix of swinging rhythms and snarling guitar, trip-hop keys and embolada rap are a call to awareness to a world asleep to the horrors of Bolsonaro’s Brazil. Pieces like ‘Hospício Digital’ beguile like a track from vintage Archive or Tricky – with their uncomfortable mix of sweet bossa and electronica. Gentle melodies and sweet breezy acoustic guitar are offset by disturbing minor notes and off-centre rhythm. And in a rich, velvety resonant voice Alliye cajoles, laments and weeps – like a nueva canción prophetess full of tears, righteousness and hope and against hope, demanding that the world notices what is happening to the women, Indigenous, marginalised and Black people in her country.