Liana

This may be the first album we've heard that actually takes fado out of its headscarf-and-dive-bar history and moves it into the 21st century. Don't get us wrong -- we love Mariza and the other brilliant, fairly traditional fadistas. But Liana goes out on a limb, trying out trip-hop beats (fado-hop?) and a tango-fado hybrid that works so well it landed on a Putumayo comp. Lyrically, Liana plunders the greatest Portuguese writers, including the slippery Fernando de Pessoa and Miguel Torga, but what we love best is how she translates fado's fierceness for non-world-music audiences.