World Listening Post publishes album reviews that showcase music from around the globe. The site encompasses a wide range of contemporary and traditional music styles and encourages readers and listeners to go beyond their own comfort zones by crossing national and linguistic frontiers. You can access reviews, starting with the most recent, by scrolling down the left-hand column of this page; with the index (alphabetical by artist); or by country and language in the right-hand column.
Carminho: Portuguesa

Carminho: Portuguesa

The Fado Path Listening Post 375. In the fado universe Carminho is a bright star, so it’s natural that people pay attention not only when she sings but also when she speaks about her country’s iconic music genre. “For me,” she said in a recent magazine interview,...

Maja Milinković: Kaftan D’Alma

Maja Milinković: Kaftan D’Alma

Mutual Conquest Listening Post 344. In the Age of Discovery Portugal was the starting point for explorers, but for Maja Milinković it’s the destination. Like adventurers of old, the Bosnian singer-songwriter thrives in parallel worlds, from the church where she sang...

Cristina Clara: Lua Adversa

Cristina Clara: Lua Adversa

Handle Music With Care Listening Post 340. The classic music genres emerged in seaside melting pots during the nineteenth century: In Lisbon it was fado, imbued with longing but often the kind that hurts so good; in Rio de Janeiro it was choro, commonly exuding joy...

Teresinha Landeiro: Agora

Teresinha Landeiro: Agora

Fate in the Future Listening Post 329. Fado means destiny, and those who sing Portugal’s signature music explore saudade—nostalgia for what, or who, is lost and longed for. But what is the fate of fado itself? The first post-Amália Rodrigues generation of fadistas—an...

Cuca Roseta: Meu

Cuca Roseta: Meu

Passion’s Arena Listening Post 325. Love is universal, the feeling that most connects people of every era—from cave dwellers to web surfers—which explains why love songs far outnumber all other kinds. And just like common folk looking for that magic spark, the...

Duarte: No Lugar Dela

Duarte: No Lugar Dela

Positions Listening Post 314. Duarte has three defining missions: “I am married to psychology but fado is my lover,” he says, referring to his clinical practice and his art. And though he has a sterling reputation as a fado singer he is also a lyricist-composer,...

Rodrigo Costa Félix: Tempo

Rodrigo Costa Félix: Tempo

The Many Sides of Time Listening Post 309. Fado and Portugal combined are like a reversible garment: Display the banner of one on the outside and the other side touches your heart. And if the music expresses the Portuguese soul, perhaps no artist expresses fado in as...

Carla Pires: Cartografado

Carla Pires: Cartografado

All Over the Map Listening Post 290. Travel far and discover yourself: The idea has inspired literary figures and works from Camus to Kerouac to Cloud Atlas. The twist Carla Pires offers on her fourth studio album is assimilating the distant horizon not only into...

Maria Monda

Maria Monda

Mother Nature’s Daughters Listening Post 283. Civilizations through the ages have paid homage to the Earth, but today planet reverence at best coexists with environmental abuse. And while the debut album by the Portuguese trio Maria Monda sounds like traditional...

Cristina Branco: Eva

Cristina Branco: Eva

My BFF And/Is Me Listening Post 266. From David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust to Beyoncé’s Sasha Fierce, from Philip Roth’s Zuckerman to Marcel Duchamp’s Rrose Sélavy, the alter ego has an honored place in creative art. But the Portuguese singer Cristina Branco molded...

Maja Milinković: Fadolinka

Maja Milinković: Fadolinka

Signs and Voices Listening Post 239. Like many artists, Maja Milinković takes advantage of unexpected opportunity and inspiration. She learned guitar in an underground shelter during the Siege of Sarajevo; it helped her stay calm and prepared her for a music career....

Três Bairros: O Turno da Noite

Três Bairros: O Turno da Noite

Men at Love  Listening Post 231. Love is the magician that pulls a man out of his own hat, but how many get lucky when they try to force the alchemy? Consider the countless stories—tragic, hilarious, pathetic, triumphant—of guys who make the effort. To that list add...

Carminho: Maria

Carminho: Maria

Fado in Black, White and Color Listening Post 226. The song Sete Saias (Seven Skirts) describes the women of Nazaré, Portugal, who traditionally wore multiple layers on the cold beach where they waited for their husbands’ fishing boats. The only piece of small-town...

Cristina Branco: Branco

Cristina Branco: Branco

Life Without Emojis Listening Post 209. If social media represents the spotlight, what’s hidden in the shadow? Cristina Branco answers on her fifteenth album: Real life, a jumble of dream, sorrow, survival, despair, the passage and freezing of time, and every love...

Sopa de Pedra: Ao Longe Já Se Ouvia

Sopa de Pedra: Ao Longe Já Se Ouvia

Leave No Stone Unsung Listening Post 194. In the folk tale, a hungry traveler stops in a village and asks for food. Rebuffed, he fills a pot with water from a stream, puts a stone in it and places it over a fire. Villagers intrigued by the idea of “Stone...

Catarina dos Santos: Rádio Kriola

Catarina dos Santos: Rádio Kriola

An Ocean of a Neighborhood Listening Post 185. The subtitle of Catarina dos Santos’ second album is “Reflections on Portuguese Identity,” a subject as big as the ocean that touches Portugal, Africa and Brazil and as small as the working-class town where she grew up....

Duarte: Só a Cantar

Duarte: Só a Cantar

Taking Pains Listening Post 183. Duarte is a fado purist, making no concession to other genres, just Portuguese and acoustic guitars, bass and his sensitive, expressive voice. Literally and figuratively, he takes pains to be authentic as he explores the nuances of...

Cuca Roseta: Luz

Cuca Roseta: Luz

Natural Light Listening Post 152. Rather than linger over beautiful sunsets, our ancestors ran home at dusk, so fraught with danger and superstition was the night. Advanced societies tend to take light for granted. On her fourth album, Cuca Roseta shows a...

Carminho Canta Tom Jobim

Carminho Canta Tom Jobim

Diving into a Wave Listening Post 119. Wise is the traveler who dives into another culture without losing her own identity, who enables both visitor and host to see themselves in a new light. So it is that Carminho, a pre-eminent star of the fado renaissance, brings...

Cristina Branco: Menina

Cristina Branco: Menina

The Stuff of Dreams Listening Post 94. Cristina Branco is a fado virtuoso but her interpretation isn’t confined to a single genre, nor is her inspiration limited to the world of music. Menina (Girl), her fourteenth album, began with a dream in which the figures in...

Ana Moura: Moura

Ana Moura: Moura

Fado and Happy Feet Listening Post 58. Fado is about soul and spirit, and Ana Moura is extraordinary at both. On her landmark sixth album, two of the more passionate and traditional songs (Moura and Moura Encantada) play off her name: in Portuguese folklore, mouras...

Carminho: Canto

Carminho: Canto

I Sing, Therefore I Am Listening Post 40. Fado means destiny. And for Carminho, destiny is fado, by nature and nurture. Her mother is a fado singer and her parents ran a popular Libson fado club; her sumptuous and nuanced voice soars without roaring and softens...

Cuca Roseta: Riû

Cuca Roseta: Riû

No-Hankie Fado Listening Post 21. Cuca Roseta’s third album has touches of fado’s traditional melancholy, but from the pace of her arrangements to the bounce in her voice, most of what it has is joy. It’s an embracing joy— while some fado artists temper their music...

António Zambujo: Rua da Emenda

António Zambujo: Rua da Emenda

Streetcar Named Desire Listening Post 11. Move over Judy Garland. The most captivating trolley song in 75 years has arrived on a 15-track album from Portugal’s leading male fado singer. Pica do 7 (7’s Conductor) tells of a shy woman who rides the Number 7 tram daily...

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