The Decibel Tolls

Over the last few years, Brazilian Tropicalismo innovator, Caetano Veloso, has had his stateside stature escalated to near-god status after being name-dropped by the likes of David Byrne, Beck and Devendra Banhart.  Well-known in his home country but far from a best-selling artist, he expressed to the New York Times his confusion over the hero-worship from English-speakers with no cultural context for his music.  ”‘My popularity outside Brazil was a big mystery to me and to a certain extent remains enigmatic,” he said adding that he always thought Gilberto Gil was the better musician of the two.

I happen to have a modest command of Portuguese though not near fluent enough to follow Veloso’s nuanced narratives.  Perhaps in a concerted effort to cater to his gringo audiences, he released A Foreign Sound in 2004 with English-speaking covers of Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder and Kurt Cobain among others.  Unfortunately it came off contrived, scattered and soulless and probably explains why in his subsequent release, Cê, he returns to his native tongue.  People listen to Sigur Rós despite having absolutely no comprehension of the lyrics so maybe the phenomenon is not really all that baffling.

It does beg the question of who originated the notion that Veloso was the Brazilian Bob Dylan.  It seems to be a truism that pervades the American press despite anyone’s ability to decipher what it is he’s saying.  While both singers were contemporaries, Dylan and Veloso were products of radically different environments.  The American folk movement appropriated a heartland nostalgia but Tropicalismo sought to broaden the palette of Brazilian music beyond bossa nova to a more electic and worldly aesthetic.  In the eyes of Brazil’s wildly nationalistic military regime, any effort to appropriate external influences was perceived as subversive and Veloso’s hippie image and diverse sounds were threatening in an increasingly insular nation.  Deep in the boiler room of the interwebs you’ll find Veloso vs. Dylan debates so feel free to look them up.  But furthering the argument just props up an already tired critic’s cliche.

I’m admittedly not that familiar with Veloso’s more recent work.  Ironically while he’s moved on and embraced more modern sounds, legion followers have adopted his style from some 40 years ago.  You can’t read a Banhart interview without hearing reference to Veloso and Tropicalismo has definitely had a revival.  Os Mutantes was picked up for the Pitchfork Festival a few years ago and even back home Gilberto Gil served a brief stint as Brazil’s Minister of Culture.

Details on Veloso’s release scheduled for April are sketchy and mostly in Spanish or Portuguese.  Zii e Zie is touted as being estilo “rockero” and a quote from Veloso indicates it’s similar in style to Cê. Keep in mind that what a 66 year-old thinks of as a rock album – no matter his past status – may not be what you have in mind.  And the same article also references Veloso’s past collaboration with David Byrne of the “Scottish band, Talking Heads” so I’d take the musical critique with a grain of salt.

Really, take any critique of Veloso with a grain of salt and give it a listen for yourself.  Checking Metacritic you’ll find scores for Cê range from 40 to 100.  You get everything from the ‘Veloso is genuis so everything he does is brilliant’ to ‘this doesn’t sound like “Bat Macumba”‘ and everything in between.  Through the magic of MP3s, a few select cuts are posted below.  ”Cada Macaco No Seu Galho” is a collaboration with Gilberto Gil which epitomizes the sound of Tropicalismo and Minhas Lagrimas from Cê clearly shows his progression into something totally different.

MP3 :::
Caetano Veloso – Minhas Lagrimas
Caetano Veloso & Gilberto Gil – Cada Macaco No Seu Galho