Album of the Week: Elis & Tom

Evening folks. We're heading back to Brasil for a little bossa nova action for this week's recommendation. Music fans, say "Oi! Tudo bem!" to Elis Regina and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

I picked this album up in Rio de Janeiro this summer. And I'm not just saying that to sound pretentious, I literally did purchase it in Rio, at an extremely overpriced record shop near our hotel. I had taken down a list of musicians from Tony and went in there and showed it to an employee, and asked him in Portugenglish if he could point me to some good albums. This particular album is the one he told me I absolutely had to walk out of the store with. I quickly realized why. This is music of such intense passion, it is incredible.

The thing that I believe distinguishes this from other bossa nova albums is the fact that many of the pieces aren't really bossa pieces at all. There's a lot of string action going on, and a lot of solo voice work. Because of this, the overall tone of this album is incredibly intimate. Intimate to the point that you almost feel as if you're intruding on something you have no business hearing. There's a certain nakedness to the production, a harsh juxtaposition of voice and piano, or voice and strings. Not harsh in the traditional sense, but harsh rather in the starkness of the music.

By far, my favourite track on this album is Só tinha de ser com você. The use of the electric piano gives it just the right tinge of beachside schmaltz, while utilizing a funky little swing figure throughout to give it some bounce. Simply fantastic. There's also quite an emotional rendition of Corcovado. I think I like it better than Astrud Gilberto's version. The fact that everything is in Portuguese, and there is no lameass attempt to translate the meaning into English helps greatly, I feel. I'm sorry, but I am not a fan of translation in music. People should listen to art in the form that it comes to them. There's this idea out there that everything needs to be tailor made to the consumer. Maybe in some sense, this is true. Like if I were buying a kitchen appliance or something. I'd want my appliance to do what I want. But when it comes to works of art, the point is to tailor it to one audience, if there's one at all. Art is a product of the society in which it is made, and to try and cram it into a different societal framework, well, I think that's a bad idea.

So listen to this in Portuguese and don't complain that you can't understand it. That adds to the romance, the exoticism.

I really don't have a whole lot else to say. I drank too much coffee too late at night after getting up too early and have a bit of a headache. But I popped this into the carousel, and life was good again. Can't say much more than that. If you're into bossa nova and/or want some genuinely fantastic music, go buy this album.

You'll almost certainly pay less than I did.

I would kill for a caipirinha right now.