Liniker: <em>CAJU</em>
8.5
GENRE: Pop
YEAR OF RELEASE: 2024Year after year, Brazilian artists elbow each other to deliver soundtracks for the summer, including songs to be played at exhaustion during carnival. It’s when they are not trying to do that that the best Brazilian music emerges, though. Liniker, an artist with until now a niche but loyal following, never had such goals. If anything, the singer always seemed preoccupied at delivering her truest art, a worry that proved itself fruitful when she became the first transgender person to win a Latin Grammy in 2022 for her solo debut album. Her second studio album, CAJU, continues this mission of delivering art that is true to her heart with a complexity that feels personal and universal. It is a record that radiates humanity, effortlessly blending genres and themes while positioning Liniker as not just an artist but a storyteller, a bearer of cultural weight, and a seeker of love and meaning through conversational music.
Indigo Borboleta Anil, Liniker’s first solo album, was a stunning debut that reintroduced her to the world outside the comforting cocoon of her former band, Liniker e os Caramelows. If that album was a metamorphosis, CAJU is Liniker taking flight. This album feels more exploratory and dynamic, a collection of songs trailing samba, MPB, pagode, pop, jazz, and electronica, with ease and precision. Each track is an enormous brushstroke that contributes to a larger canvas that is as vibrant and textured as Brazil, Liniker’s home country.
Title-track “Caju” opens the record with an intricate arrangement that swells with purpose. Liniker’s voice, commanding and velvety, guides the listener through a cascade of emotions. She layers sensuality and longing over hypnotic instrumentals crafted by collaborators Fejuca and Gustavo Ruiz, whose production across the album anchors it in a fluid mix of the traditional and the experimental. But Liniker doesn’t just stop at creating music—she invites us into her world, her joys, pains, and hopes. In fact, it does not feel like you are listening to an album. CAJU is conversational, as if you are sitting in a veranda, listening to a friend tell you her stories while you sip on a fresh, cold juice spiked with cachaça.
“Tudo,” a single released ahead of the album, is perhaps the most emblematic of CAJU’s ethos. Written during a three-day romance in Ireland, the song pulsates with nostalgia and possibility: “Deixa eu ficar na tua vida/Morar dentro da concha/Do teu abraço não quero largar,” she pleads, asking to stay within the grasp of fleeting love. Liniker sings of the kind of love that feels infinite despite its brevity, her voice crackling with intimacy. On “Ao Teu Lado,” her collaboration with Amaro Freitas and Anavitória, Liniker explores vulnerability with poetic honesty, her lyrics floating over a jazzy, soulful melody that feels both delicate and bold.
What stands out most about CAJU is Liniker’s ability to balance the profoundly personal with the grandly universal. Tracks like “Veludo Marrom,” featuring the Orquestra Brasil Jazz Sinfônica, and “Negona dos Olhos Terríveis,” with BaianaSystem, blend introspection with sonic experimentation. They also carry the weight of Liniker’s identity as a Black, transgender Brazilian woman navigating fame, love, and the societal pressures that come with both. Yet, the music never feels heavy-handed. It’s cathartic—a celebration of survival, resilience, and beauty—but subtle, without yelling for space. In much of CAJU’s world, the space already exists, it’s already owned, it’s hers. Of course, that doesn’t devoid the album of vulnerability, and Liniker’s lyrical one is perhaps best encapsulated in her own words: “Eu quero ser vista como humana. Eu quero ser amada.” (“I want to be seen as human. I want to be loved.”) This plea courses through the veins of CAJU, especially on tracks like “Papo de Edredom,” an understated gem featuring Melly, and “Deixa Estar,” a breezy yet emotional collaboration with Brazil icons Lulu Santos and Pabllo Vittar.
But CAJU is not just an album of collaboration or confession; it’s a masterclass in genre-blending. The Tropkillaz-produced “So Special” fuses electronica and R&B with Liniker’s soulful delivery, while “Take Your Time e Relaxa” mixes English and Portuguese to create a cross-cultural fusion of sound. Even shortest tracks, like “Mayonga,” leave an indelible mark, their brevity amplifying their and the adjacent longer tracks’ intensity. As the closing notes of the album fade, one is left with the lingering thought that Liniker’s artistry is about more than music. Her work creates spaces where vulnerability and strength coexist, where powerful vibrato sometimes gives space to soft falsettos, reminding us of the radical power of simply being human and having multitudes.
Listen below:
The debut studio album by the UK-based singer is a candid assemblage of self-confidence and insecurity, both at once.