Caetano Veloso – Caetano Veloso

Um disco belíssimo do Caetano Veloso. Com muita brasilidade e psicodelia, o disco fala de amor, política, liberdade, religiosidade e latinidade. Um clássico.

No one has commented on the style of the sleeve for this entry, and it does bear noting. When I recently bought my copy, I was more concerned about the condition of the vinyl, so I did not examine the sleeve until later. I was a little shocked, thinking I may have mistakenly bought a bootleg, but the wax matched all the descriptions. here. The sleeve resembles an LP-sized booklet, with the iconic artwork of the LP printed in matte on cardboard stock, sandwiching two pieces of thicker blank cardboard in-between. It is not like a typical LP sleeve, which is usually sealed around three sides with an opening on the right side for accessing the record. This literally looks like a four-page booklet. Initially, I thought someone had reproduced the sleeve, but the seller informed me that this was a common manufacturing practice for Brazilian albums in the '60s. They were issued in tight plastic "bags" that held all the contents together, but many of these wore out or were discarded. By the time I came across mine, it only had the "booklet." I'm not sure if all the pressings in this run are the same. I will try to add a photo for this entry.

A very superior Tropicália album.
Whatever the editors of Rolling Stone, or other musical experts may have thought, my only problem with Os Mutantes was its 1968 psychedelia-sounding tracks. The softer, less psychedelic tracks were better. Otherwise, my knowledge, and music-listening experience of Tropicália, at this stage, is really little more than Gilberto Gil; another artist I really like.

Caetano Veloso occasionally does remind me of those artists, which is not a bad thing, but, in general, this release takes me a step further in my experience of Brazilian music. The Brazilian accentual lilt on the Portuguese Language lends itself very nicely to a very superior-sounding, romantic sound. It is of course nothing really like the wonderful samba classics of times gone by, but you can still sense the influences.

This has much less to do with what was happening in Anglo-Saxon & African-American music in 1968, than the Os Mutantes album and, I repeat, it is much more ethnically Latin American, and specifically Brazilian, than anything else I have so far heard of Tropicália. An exceptional album indeed, it stokes my desire to listen to more, both of the artist and the genre. Caetano Veloso is good, and different enough for me. It has enough to urge me to take that extra step on.

Outstanding Tracks: Onde Andarás, Clarice & Paisagem Útil.

for information porpouse only. my copy has Matrix / Runout on side 1 AA 765.026 1L 2º and on side 2 AA 765.026 2L 2º

Very good album. Psychedelic rock too with two brasilian psychedelic bands: Beat Boys and Os Mutantes.