Elis

I’m well above a 5. It's arguably a 10.

This is, in essence, Elis Regina’s 1980 album “Elis” (not to be confused with the same named album from 1966, 1972, 1973, 1974, or 1977) with a few extra tracks scattered in from other albums (including, oddly enough, a track from “Clube da Esquina 2”). Somehow, this album from Brazil & sung entirely in Portuguese manages to give off the closest energy to a Japanese city pop album that we’ve gotten on the entire list so far. There’s a wide variety of styles here, but all of them are anchored by Elis’ voice, which is nothing short of lovely. She can shift her power on a dime, and occasionally, the control she has over her voice carries a similar natural charisma to, say, Frank Sinatra.

I translated every track just to get a slight feel for the tone of each track. They’re all platitudinal; mostly about living life to the fullest, loving hard, trusting God, & ultimately, just trying to find the vibrance of life, even in its best & worst moments. It’s a positive album. The lyrics, however, do not matter, at least in terms of being able to enjoy this as a purely auditory experience; every track here has such a natural vocal progression with peaks & valleys that you can feel everything off the tone of her voice alone. Combine that with instrumentation that touches on practically every emotion you can capture (soft Spanish guitars, plunky bass, marimbas & sax, samba drums, city pop synthwork. etc), & it just hit my ears perfectly. This is such a damn delight to listen to, and I can easily look past any possible repetition because it just sounds that good. I genuinely can’t think of any knocks here outside of the track order (I’d have flipped the last two), but that’s an incredibly minor nitpick.

Hence, something well above a 5. Arguably a 10. It feels a bit cheap since it’s technically a compilation album, but even if this had just been 1980’s “Elis”, I’m pretty sure I’d still be at a 5. She just has a natural charisma in her voice that’s impossible to ignore, and with production that evokes so much of a genre that’s criminally not featured on the list, I’d have loved it regardless. The extra tracks just enhance that further & give a bit of extra spice in a way that showcases the breadth of her versatility, and I can hardly find fault in that. I’m so, so glad this is on the list. Mileage will vary, obviously, but the bare minimum floor should be a 3 here. For me, it’s just that much of a delight, & I'm probably a second great listen away from this being a 10.