For someone with only one full-length to her credit -- and few other credits to her name -- Cibelle makes a bold move with her second album, The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves. Essentially, the album follows the lead of the About a Girl EP she'd released a year earlier, away from the broadly appealing samba-lounge of her self-titled debut album and toward relatively abstract soundscapes and poetics that comprise a style that could be described as "folktronica" (i.e., heavy-handed studiocraft rustling around quietly behind Cibelle's mix of Portuguese- and English-language self-penned lyrics, with a few choice covers thrown in as well). It's a consciously artistic direction, for sure, and while her music is just as graceful as before, with her beautiful vocals in the forefront at all times, it's a direction that is more difficult to grasp. After all, Cibelle had been an immediately appealing album, a feel-good listen that was hard to dislike with its samba-lite rhythms and lounge essence, not unlike Bebel Gilberto's beloved Tanto Tempo. In contrast, The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves bares more of a resemblance to highly crafted, lulling, and ultimately poetic recent critical favorites like Björk's Vespertine and Devendra Banhart's Cripple Crow (the latter artist duets here on "London, London"). For instance, half the album is in English, particularly the first half, and the songs build and swell with each passing minute, rather than play out in a straightforward verse-chorus-verse fashion. This music is fascinating if you can appreciate the conception of such an album, one that credits three different producers (Apollo Nove, Mike Lindsay, Yann Arnaud) who each live in different countries (!) and, for the most part, co-produce each track. Cibelle's ambition will be lost on some listeners, undoubtedly, especially those looking for some laid-back Brazilian beats tailor-made for hanging out. Yet the artistry so evident on The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves should be a delightful surprise to those who enjoy their music heady as well as beautiful, and with a literate, worldly edge.
~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
All Music Guide