Salada - Crime Perfeito download free

Salada de Frutas was a band that emerged in the early 80’s Portuguese Rock/Pop boom. They got lots of airplay with a hit called “Robot” which gave them some notoriety, and after releasing a couple of albums, they changed their line-up, their musical orientation and even their name, shortening it to Salada.Crime Perfeito, released in 1982 was their only album under this new name, and they disbanded shortly after on account of mediocre media response to their new sound. In fact, only the closing track of Crime Perfeito got a little airplay by that time.If Salada de Frutas was a pretty simple band to characterize, playing a sort of commercial, easy listening Rock, Salada chose to change that approach a bit, releasing an album where that prior commercial Rock was somehow disguised behind a more vanguardist, experimental and instrumental musicality.The commercial “flop” of the album would become the main reason for their disappearance, and the dispersion of their musicians to other bands/projects. Some still in act today, and with some success in modern Portuguese Rock (such cases as Três Tristes Tigres, Ala dos Namorados or Frei Fado Del Rei).So this particular album was a very ambitious project for that time standards and characteristics of Portuguese Rock. As the band had gained a place in the notorious Rock bands in this country, and their goal of trying to stretch the boundaries of that contemporary Rock into something more elaborate and experimental failed completely.Crime Perfeito is also a very unbalanced release, mixing good tracks with others that are simply not good.There is a clear attempt of being inventive and avant-garde in a pure Rock basis, as the album opens with Scoubidou which mixes The Police, Buggles and German Rock (some Falco reminiscences). Now this is really an odd thing to do, and it honestly does not work that well….Polaridade Invertida presents us a more spatial and slightly psychedelic sound in slow tempo. Fanquico is an instrumental experimentation that brings a slightly symphonic sound into the pure rock grounds. With Rock Ricardo (best track in the album) it provides the best moments in the album. This last referred track is in fact a totally symphonic, slightly neo-classic track, extremely well played in fast pace.On volt la mer d’ici is another instrumental track of interest, as the band explores new grounds of melodic prog, in an almost “Neo Prog” harmony.The title track starts in good fashion, like continuing the prior one, but the vocal part is really demonstrative of the Portuguese Rock of that time, unimaginative and boring. The instrumental parts serve to compensate those vocalized ones….Citânea again has some symphonic leanings, but a bit naïf and repetitive as the track evolves. The closing moments show the most experimental and avant-garde side of the band.Local do Crime is a very uninteresting instrumental track with a boring rhythm. And it opens the worst part of the album, as the following Ovo da Pascoa continues that same path, with inorganic rhythms and boring melodies. The vocal choruses are almost unbearable, if you ask me…The Mariacchi theme that ends the album, will probably put a smile in the face of the listener, for it unexpected appearance…Though the objective of the band was to bring some experimentation and freshness to the basic rock that was fashionable by those early 80’s, this was a complete fail in many aspects. In the commercial one, the presented mixing of styles could never be a success, and even in musical terms, the players involved could indeed make a lot better due to their very good playing abilities.Yet, this is a collector’s item, and one of those rare Portuguese albums of the 80’s that tried to bring progressive leanings back to the first row. It failed, that’s true, but the intension was there, and there are some good moments here that make this album an interesting one for collectors, especially Portuguese ones.