CAETANO VELOSO — Caetano Veloso (A Little More Blue) (review)

CAETANO VELOSO — Caetano Veloso (A Little More Blue) album cover

Album · 1971 · Bossa Nova

4.5/5 · 2011-04-25
Matt

Bossa Nova with a tinge of sadness and longing is the predominate feel for Caetano Veloso's third self titled album being actually his sixth if you count the first with Gal Costa, "Domingo". He had good reason to be sad as he had been kicked out of his home country Brazil for being subversive and actually had spent time in jail but no one knew what for but the government did not seem interested in the detail. Perhaps it was because he was a new superstar singing a different style of music that appealed to the young and military governments are not to fond of others having influence within the society so London was where Caetano headed in to exile through no fault of his own and it was there that he decided to write and record this album which is often titled "A Little More Blue". Caetano went the whole way and decided to even write the majority of the lyrics in English giving a poignancy to the music and at times you can sense the home-sickness that he was experiencing but through all that we still get bright moments and even within the sadness as when you hear what would be my favourite song for the album concerning his sister "Maria Bethania" there is still that tropical joy element within. Instrumentation for the album is percussion, bass, electric and acoustic guitar, flute with strings added in places placing a light feel to the sound with a bossa and samba influence but with Caetano you can hear that slight contempary rock and psyche influence with his own modern take on Brazilian music within the time period that this album was recorded. There are no notes concerning the band and Caetano would have contributed the guitar input as well as vocals of course with the addition in one track of female backing vocals with "If You Hold A Stone".

The album commences with "A Little More Blue" and longing and sadness for his home are the lyrics story with examples of sad moments from his past and even they cannot surpass how he feels stuck in London with the title giving us the description over this sparsely played tune with Caetono's guitar being the primary backing for his vocals but the lightness of his music does not convey all gloom and actually it is quite a nice catchy light tune."London London" is more of that home sickness but delivered in a beautuful acoustic psychedelic tinge with the addition of flute and a chorus of " While my eyes go looking for flying saucers in the sky" grab those beads and incense for this one. The album standout is "Maria Bethania" with that bass thump intro and strange vocal scat finish that makes the tune so original and one that everyone will pay attention to over this more up tempo and very distinctive song concerning Caetano's sister who actually is a star in her own right in Brazil and still recording today as Caetano is. The fourth song "If You Hold a Stone is another more up tempo track on the album with the chorus sung in Portugeuse concerning his home in Bahia we have a great folk feel to the tune with the female backing vocalists singing counter in Portuguese "Shoot Me Dead" with its percussion and flute intro is a samba with plenty of bounce and another beautiful number with the second last song being an introspective ballad "In The Hot Sun Of A Christmas Day" and the album finishes up with the sparse "Asa Branca" with Caetano's guitar and vocal with his scat in this superb dreamy song.

You will not be up dancing but you will be listening to this fairly quite but very catchy album for a long time and one that is wonderful to hear when the sun is out.