RODRIGO AMARANTE - Drama LP (Clear Olive Vinyl)

Label: Polyvinyl

Rio de Janeiro-born singer-songwriter Rodrigo Amarante’s second solo LP, Drama, opens with a brief, instrumental, eponymous track. Sounds of canned laughter, artificial applause, and raindrops hitting a tin roof crackle through stereo speakers, offering a variegated preface to the 11-track record. It’s easy to get lost in the sounds of hazy summer heat that Amarante conjures on Drama, but really, the drama is in the details of this Polyvinyl debut.

Arriving eight years after Amarante’s last solo LP, the new record sounds like a natural progression incorporating so many elements of his past musical experiences. Most reductively considered acoustic guitar-based folk music, Drama showcases clear connections to Brazilian samba and música popular brasileira (an extension of bossa nova combined with elements of contemporary jazz rock that emerged in Brazil in the late 1960s).

Amarante plays 10 different instruments throughout the album, including drums, bass, harpsichord, tenor saxophone, organ, ukulele, and more.