NARA LEÃO: "Dez Anos Depois"

Edição original em LP Duplo Polydor 2388.004/5

(BRASIL, 1971)

Beautiful masterpiece, overflowing with musicianship and Nara's commanding performance.  Top five double albums, period, which would probably making it my favorite bossa album. I'm just gonna call it the bible of bossa. No standouts, everything is perfect right down to the sequencing. Outstanding music in acoustic settings with that huge, booming echo.  Really “Dez Anos Depois” can even be enjoyed on a completely superficial level, just by listening to how immaculately recorded it is. But it is official, what makes this album such a knockout is the performers. Nara knows these songs, but the musicians are no slouches either... no one misses a detail. Menescal's production pares down the artifice in a way not too distant to Françoise Hardy's records and puts the entire spotlight on Nara, on her voice, letting the songs breathe and her charms slowly seep through.

I want to marry Nara's voice. That is the immediate impulse I get listening to this. Her voice, both pure and insinuating is the living and floating embodiment of Bossa Nova. Even while tackling songs for which you can find dozens of covers around, hers is usually the most charming. The one that renders all other versions moot. Why do many regard "Dez Anos Depois" as the definite Nara Leão document? Well, the quality of the compositions is unimpeachable, drawing from the songbooks of Jobim, Buarque or Moraes to cite but three. Plus there's simply a lot of music here, 24 songs over two LPs. And in Nara's case too much of a good thing can indeed continue to be wonderful. This wonderful double album was recorded during her self-imposed exhile in Paris. (in RateYourMusic)