This is a CD reissue of Caetano Veloso's first album as a solo artist, which was originally released in 1968. Recorded in 1967, the album marked the birth of the culturally revolutionary Tropicalia movement, of which Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil were the leading figures. The concept of the... [+] Expand

This is a CD reissue of Caetano Veloso's first album as a solo artist, which was originally released in 1968. Recorded in 1967, the album marked the birth of the culturally revolutionary Tropicalia movement, of which Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil were the leading figures. The concept of the movement was to modernize Brazilian popular culture and through creative music and poetry reflect the Brazilian society as it appeared at the time. Caetano and the other tropicalistas mixed traditional Brazilian popular music primarily with international pop culture and psychedelic rock, but they would incorporate practically anything that crossed their mind. This kind of wild cultural and musical "cannibalism" was found to be very controversial by many elements of the Brazilian society, both to the left and to the right on the political spectra, and would ultimately lead to the arrest and forced exile of Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil in 1969. After the hugely successful release of the psychedelic pop poem "Alegria, alegria" as a single in 1967, Caetano aimed at releasing an album that would surpass the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's in terms of creativity, while at the same time reflecting the new, more international, Brazil. The result was this unique 12 track gem with classics such as the already mentioned "Alegria alegria", the lovely and ironic "Superbacana" and the Latin flavoured "Soy Loco por ti America". The title of the opening track "Tropicália", a song that in a wonderful way summarizes what the movement was all about, was actually borrowed from an installation by the visual artist Hélio Oiticica, which Caetano found very inspiring. Soon after the release of this album, the term "Tropicália", to the mild irritation of Caetano himself, became the name used by the media to describe the entire movement itself. Apart from the great and uniquely inventive music on the album, what strikes the listener is the excellent standard of the lyrics, written by prominent poets as Capinam, Ferreira Gullar and of course Caetano Veloso himself. More often than not, the lyrics could perfectly stand for themselves as poems. For all its artistic quality, and its position as the first Tropicalia album and Caetano Veloso's first solo album, this is a true classic and one of the most important albums of Brazilian popular music history. ~ Philip Jandovský, All Music Guide [-] Collapse

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