When Mallu Magalhães, a 16 year old singer and songwriter from a wealthy neighbourhood in São Paulo, came out on Myspace three years ago, Brazilian press felt in love with her. Placed somewhere between postnerdism, anti folk and press opportunism Mallu Magalhães became well known in the web and then famous nation wide. She was invited to most of Brazilian festivals, became MTV new big thing, signed to Sony, made fans and tours in Portugal, dated some prominent names in the new Brazilian music and eventually took up a relationship to Marcelo Camello from Los Hermanos - as if Thom Yorke were hooking up with Laura Marling - (his former bandmate Rodrigo Amarante teamed up with Fabrizio Moretti and Binki Shapiro to form Little Joy).

The first concert of her new album, at Auditório Ibirapuera in late March, was supposed to be a finest hour in her 19 year old story. But for most of the set her voice was still not that great, and her attitude on stage caused some embarrassment – unless you were a friend or a teenager. Mallu Magalhães’ Band is the Something Blue Trio , which has a particular relation to the British 60’s blues/rock scene and Rolling Stones. Although most of Mallu’s second album is a mix of pop and Brazilian popular rock (most of it influenced by Los Hermanos and bossa nova) her first album was coined under folk and blues influences. Something Blue is formed by Kadu Abecassis (electric guitar), Thiago Comsorti (bass) and Jorge Moreira (drums) and were first recruited by Pete Screw Hassle for a late reencarnation of The Screw, a band that performed on legendary Rolling Stones Concert at Hyde Park on July 5th in 1969. That was supposed to be the debut of Mick Taylor and also a fortuitous homage to Brian Jones, dead few weeks before.  Although Peter Hossell performance was regarded as one of the most energetic in that afternoon the band dismantled at the end of that year.

Guitar player and producer Kadu Abecassis had been working with Hassle for some time before discovering Mallu’s talent while working for a sound studio in São Paulo, describes Something Blue sonority: “Think of a blues band drawn into rock for one year and then remerging from it”.

Well, that’s not quite what you hear in most of her homonymous second album. Here and there she plays childish-dylanesque-pastiches over folk melodies on relationships and devotion both to her lover - and her mom! But in some very special tunes, she manages to deliver the rock and roll her band and age deserves. She even screams in “My Home is My Man” singing phrases such as “You know we live it all the time/You know we do it/and I ain't gonna stop it!). Unfortunately that is not enough to save her from a path of a princess star (always valued in a Latin Christian Catholic market) but certainly is enough to prove she can count on a little help from her friends to play - in full mode - in her next album.

Mallu Magalhães

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