by Alvaro Neder
This second Caetano Veloso solo LP was recorded in June 1969, when Veloso
and Gilberto Gil were behind the bars of the military dictatorship. The
albums (Gil also recorded his own) were devised in part to provide them
with a connection to the outside world through which authorities would
be discouraged of attempting some violence against them. The voices were
unsophisticatedly recorded with the sole backing of their own violões
and a metronome, and the arrangements added later in the studio, which
was an indigenous and competent subversion of the basics of production,
especially if you take into consideration the available technology at
that time. The general tone of this album is coherent with the depressing
moment Veloso and the rest of the country were going through. The English
lyrics of his "The Empty Boat" have several strong images of
desperation and sadness, and "Irene" has been largely misunderstood
-- especially the verse "quero ver Irene rir" (I want to see
Irene laughing). "Irene" was the "name" of a machine
gun owned by Tenório Cavalcanti (a robber somewhat celebrated by
leftists at the time). His fado "Os Argonautas" represents implicitly
the aspiration that, as Portugal had got ridden of Salazar (in the precedent
year by a stroke), Brazil could also got rid of its dictatorship. The
superbly modern arrangements of Rogério Duprat and the songs "Não
Identificado," "Acrilírico," and "Marcianita,"
on the other hand, contribute to the anarchic, chaotic, and psychedelic
setting of tropicália in which make part the rustic fuzzed-out
guitars. But maybe the most important thing here is the evident artistic
sincerity felt throughout the album: it is when the listener feels himself
as a voyeur, peeping through the artist's deepest emotions.
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