Caetano Veloso

A nice listen and as a plus now I can say I'm cultured!!

I’m at a 4.

I mean… yeah, that sure sounds like Brazilian music after “cannibalizing” a bunch of genres for itself. AKA, “American-izing” it. It’s just a 60s rock album with a Brazilian flair, and as such, I don’t really know how to rate it other than “I had a pretty good time listening to it.” This album’s never bad, just occasionally a little flat in a way that didn’t make me move or groove as much as the majority of the album did, hence the 4 as opposed to a 5. It’s a fun listen, and a breezy 34 minutes. His vocals are smooth, and the Portuguese language sometimes lends itself to getting him into a slightly rap-adjacent flow state that’s groovy.

Only two tracks really fell THAT flat for me (including the closer, sadly), but even then, they’ve still got groovy moments within. As a whole, this is a pretty good album. I’m not sure that it’s one I had to listen to before I died, but I didn’t mind listening to it. It should have a higher average than 2.85, that’s for sure. The floor for this is a 3, and if you didn’t bop your head at least once, I think that speaks a little more about you than the music does. I like it enough to give it a 4, and maybe it’d be a 5 if I got really into the groove on these tracks another day. It’s certainly got the potential. It might be the shadow of “Songs in the Key of Life” looming over this one, I dunno.

This album sounds like a the soundtrack for a weird rom com from the 60s where a man down on his luck goes to Rio for business and meets a flighty, free spirited woman on Copacabana Beach. They begin what will become a whirlwind romance that turns into something more serious at the end of the movie.
Is it a good album? I don't really know. It's not bad. It's kind of fun to have on in the background maybe. But it doesn't make me want to listen to anything else he's done. I'm curious about the choice of that photo for the cover though.... 3/5

See, this is what I wanted the project to give me. I haven't heard of the album, the artist or even the genre before. The psy-rock / samba crossiver album I didn't know my life needed

Digging the artwork!

It's an unexpectedly fruity funky album!

An interesting mix

very well produced just not my vibe

This album is ....different..... It's part of a musical movement in the 60's called Tropicalia. This genre combines literally any musical genre together and trys to make them play nice together, but they usually don't. It's like Brazilian psychadelica. It's weird. Like, this album has traces of psychadelica, pop, rock, traditional Indian music, Bossa Nova....it's just a melting pot of any style of music or musical instrument imaginable. Not my favourite.

Favorite songs: So Loco Por Ti America, "Alegria, Alegria", Eles

Least favorite songs: Clarice, Anunciacao, Clara

2/5

Super interesting album. It utilizes all sorts of genres, from bossa nova, to folk, to psychedelic rock. The melodies and rhythms are interesting, catchy, and very, very chill. This album apparently also created the genre of tropicalia, and how many albums can say they created a genre?

4.0/5.0: Great

very interesting album. each track was unique and stayed fresh throughout. im not sure how much i really liked it vs liking the variation it provided but i enjoyed it either way

Not what I was expecting from the cover. The music is really good, but the singing is just so terrible. Probably on purpose like a tom waits sort of way, but I hate tom waits too.

It's very much not my thing, but I can recognize its talent. That said, since it's very much not my thing, I suppose I can't know for sure if it's especially talented for its genre. It's Girl from Ipanema lounge music to me, though I acknowledge that's a lazy, uninformed comparison.

I'm going to give it a 3. I don't hate it, I just wouldn't listen to it on purpose, but if it was on in the background for some reason I don't think I'd object.

Couldn't understand a word this guy was singing. But I liked this one, purely for the vibes

The Billie Jean cover really threw me off, seemed totally out of place to sing in English for this one song. But he did a great job and put his own twist on it!

4 ⭐️

I normally really like World music, for the sincerity and novelty of it - "Shaka Zulu" by Ladysmith Black Mambazo and "Buena Vista Social Club" being great examples. Ceatano Veloso did not have that appeal, for those reasons. He's doing something that sounds a little "put on," like a Carnaval mask (huh? HUH?).I craved some Brazillian Jazz and got an attempt at psychedelic-pop (maybe?). And not a really well executed version of that. Nothing to say about the lyrics or themes because I don't understand Portugese (I assume it's Portugese).

This was a blast. Combining psychedelic rock and Brazilian samba was something I never knew I needed to hear. Definitely a good inclusion on the list. Favorites were Clarice, Alegria, Alegria, Onde Andaras, Soy Loco Por Ti America.

Lots of interesting things going on here. A lot of Spanish guitar and vocal throughout, but it really gets interesting for me when he works in a little psych here and there. Digging the organ work on a lot of this too. I had to go through this one twice to really get the feel for it. It was a little disjointed in its attempt to fuse multiple styles but in this context I liked that. Felt like I was along for the ride as the artist went through a discovery process. Veloso is basically defining the Tropicália sound here.

Nothing terrible on here but a few pretty good tracks

cupacupacupacabana

I liked it for what it was. I didn't understand any of it, but I could at least enjoy the music. 2.5/5

Nothing remarkable. I just listened and can't remember much about it. 1.5/5