Aqui

This is Carla Pires’ third solo album, though she has notched up many other achievements in a career that stretches back to the early 90s – among them, roles in television drama and for many years playing the young Amália Rodrigues in the successful Portuguese musical about that most famous of fadistas.

Musical theatre exerts its influence throughout this disc. The singer clearly knows how to put a story across and there's no doubting her ability to connect with the listener. There's plenty of drama and sentiment, and the title-track completes the show with a conspiratorial summing-up by the narrator. Perhaps sometimes the emotion is offered up too eagerly, and sometimes the effect can be a little stagey. Take, for instance, the dialogue with the choral ensemble in ‘O Povo Canta Na Rua’. Arguably, however, that's all part of the effect, and there's no pretence this is fado for purists.