MARCOS VALLE

Marcos Valle 8/10

As pictured on the cover of the album that bears his name (also known as Estrelar after its biggest hit), Marcos Valle looks oddly glum for a man with so many gaily coloured drinks. At least his eyes convey something brighter, perhaps because they match the shade of the blue concoction he uses to toast listeners of one of the Brazilian great’s most consistently pleasurable long-players. Marcos Valle was the singer and composer’s first album after returning from Los Angeles to Brazil, having left in 1975 owing to his weariness of coping with censorship and other complications of life under the military dictatorship. Largely written during his exile, the music here seamlessly combines the samba, bossa nova, funk and rock elements that made his 1970s albums so sublime with the contemporary American sounds he gravitated towards while in LA. While “Samba De Verão” and “Dia D” indicated his affinities for the nimble, brass-centric R&B of Earth, Wind & Fire and Leon Ware (Valle’s co-writer on several tracks here), the honey-sweet balladry of “Fogo Do Sol” and other yacht-pop flavours reflect the friendships he’d forged with members of Chicago and players he shared with fellow émigré Sergio Mendes. A monster hit in Brazil, “Estrelar” is where it all comes together in one effervescent boogie wonderland.

Extras: 7/10 The first official LP reissue, Preservation’s edition comes with an eight-page booklet by Allen Thayer based on a new interview with Valle. of Cath Carroll’s Miaow. The collection starts with Buzzcocks, as it should, and moves chronologically, from punk into post-punk (The Fall, Tiller Boys), tracking the Haçienda’s dancefloor dominance, and ending with Oasis’ first demo. Often, the more oblique voices speak loudest, from Manchester Mekons’ pop-progpunk collectivism, through Durutti Column’s moist-eyed melancholy, World Of Twist’s epic pop oddness, to classic British hip-hop from Ruthless Rap Assassins.

Extras: 7/10 Notes from Mick Middles and Mark Radcliffe.