Sergio Mendes
'Timeless'
Universal

The record says that it's by Sergio Mendes but don't believe it for a minute. It's essentially Will.i.am's record, which is a crying shame. Don't get me wrong, he's put together some decent productions in his time, and he's clearly not a bad arranger either, but Sergio Mendes is a legend, one of those musicians so ubiquitous that by the time you actually sit down with the express purpose of listening to his songs you've heard half of them already, even if you didn't realise that was Mas Que Nada playing in the background during a soccer advert. After crafting a distinctive blend of easy-listening bossa-nova with Brasil '66 he has been largely dormant since the '60s with the exception of a comeback album in the '80s. Unfortunately, this generation isn't deemed subtle enough to 'get' Sergio, so instead of a comeback album of his own, we get something that largely sounds as if rappers have simply sampled his music as the backdrop to what might misguidedly be called a tribute album.

Mas Que Nada is absolutely ruined by the Black Eyed Peas' intervention, as first a beat that was last used in Mambo No. 5, then several overstated 16s and finally Fergie's histrionics all try to drown out the original, while Will.i.am does his best to make the listener forget Erykah Badu's sultry cooing on the Slow Hot Wind-sampling That Heat by yelling the phrase "that heat" as many times as possible in the song's 4 minutes 13 seconds. The problem here is that these are songs to be enjoyed languidly- yes, you can dance to them, but whether Will.i.am realises it or not, there was a time in the distant past when dancing did not have to involve the freak. That said, there are some efforts that are less offensive than others; the aforementioned That Heat minus Will.i.am (about 30 seconds), and Let Me (same disclaimer, about 90 seconds) stand out as moments that succeed, largely because they pair Mendes' compositions with vocalists who actually sing. It's just a shame that nobody stopped and thought that there's more to updating a song than speeding it up, adding a beat and throwing in 16 bars. And the real tragedy is that these songs didn't even need to be updated- if he wanted to introduce a new generation to Sergio Mendes, he could have just put a stock-standard compilation together, stuck his imprimateur on it and it still would have sold in bucketloads.

Alexis Buxton-Collins