Madredeus

This, Madredeus’ fifth or sixth release, is named after the long, low riverboats that ply the estuaries of the river that runs through Lisboa. The album is deliciously evocative of everything Lisboan—cobbled streets of outrageous steepness, trams and funiculars, gorgeous women in spike heels, Brazilian steak houses and the river that lures you toward the sea. The quintet—manicured guitars, keyboards and the supple voice of the angelic songbird Teresa Salguiero—crafts songs that are both new and old at the same time, songs that embody the essence of saudade, a largely untranslatable term having to do with a bittersweet sense of longing for what is lost. Though sung only in Portuguese, the beauty of this luminous and wistful melancholy has a universal appeal; just let her whisper in your ear.