O Fado em Nós

For quite some time, it looked like Pedro Moutinho would never live up to the rather unfair job of stepping out of the shadows of his older brothers, Camané and Helder Moutinho, two of the most amazing male fado performers of our time. With a more candid and smooth voice, Pedro sounded like someone unable to reach beyond a status of a fine but not extraordinary performer: convincing, but still a long way from climbing fado's mandatory emotional ladder. His voice then lacked the gravitas to carry any song up to higher ground. But, as in so many other things in life, time works miracles and age has handed Pedro the gift of a stronger delivery.

O Fado em Nós is what could be called a game-changer for Pedro Moutinho. There's no longer an innocent and juvenile trail to his voice; he sounds like a grown sensible and sore man. It helps that he has that magical duo of José Manuel Neto (Portuguese guitar) and Carlos Manuel Proença (classical guitar) by his side and that he's singing the most inspired contemporary lyrics in fado (by Maria do Rosário Pedreira and Manuela de Freitas) or the words of great Portuguese poets (Fernando Pessoa, Alexandre O’Neil). But all this would amount to nothing if Pedro failed to stand shoulder-to-shoulder against this musical and lyrical greatness. He is no longer just Camané or Helder's younger brother. They are now Pedro Moutinho's big brothers.