Hometown: Rio de Janiero, Brazil
First recordings: 1965

Featured artists:
Caetano Veloso -composition, vocals, guitar
Jacques Morelenbaum -cello, arrangement, co-director
Luiz Brasil -guitars, arrangements
Marcelo Costa -percussion, drums, guiro, arrangements
Jorge Helder -bass
Márcio Victor -percussion
Moreno Veloso -percussion, guitars, vocals
Léo Bit Bit -d'jembe, percussion
Carlinhos Brown -percussion
Maria Bethania -vocals
...and approximately 100 other musicians

Related Artists:
Maria Bethania, Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes, Milton Nascimento, João Gilberto, Carlinhos Brown, Virginia Rodrigues, Tom Zé, Daniela Mercury, Moreno Veloso, Jorge Ben Jor, Tropicalia

If this was just one of Caetano Veloso's ten greatest albums, it would be worth having. If this was just one of the ten greatest Brazilian albums ever made, it would still be worth having. But I'm going to make a higher claim for Livro: this, to me, is one of the ten greatest albums ever made by anyone. It has everything anyone would ever want out of an album, and then some: flawless melodies, relentless rhythm patterns, intelligent and sexy lyrics, and the kind of humble swagger that only comes when you know you kick major ass. That's Caetano.

Livro feels like a mission statement by the living legend from Bahia: a mix of dance songs and ballads and mid-tempo numbers, experimental pieces jammed right up against songs that could have been written 30 years ago, and conceptual grandeur all over the place. A love song to Manhattan ("Manhatã") turns out to be as scary as it is seductive; a hell of a groove is worked up for a six-minute song celebrating Alexander the Great; and the sweetest melody in the world is devoted to one of the greatest fuck-you tunes in history, the great "Não Enche," or "Piss Off." Livro is full of contradictions like this; it's almost as if Caetano was out to prove that he could do anything, and then did it for 54 wonderful minutes.

It's hard as hell to leave anything out of this review. "Doideca" is a fake-electronic samba written in the twelve-tone style of early 20th-century European avant-garde composers; and it fucking rocks. The album's most impressive track is "O Navio Negreiro," a setting of a poem about slavery by Castro Alves. Carlinhos Brown, the world's greatest percussionist, directs the relentless rhythm section while Caetano and his sister Maria Bethania intone the shattering words over a chanted capoeira chorus...man, I could use all the words in the world and still it wouldn't fully describe this work of great art and deep humanity. And then there's just fun stuff, like the juju Carnaval sound of "How Beautiful Could a Being Be," by Caetano and his son Moreno, where the only lyrics are the title of the song sung in different combinations.

I cannot believe that anyone would ever give this record anything less than a perfect score - for those weenies who must rank albums by number - or that anyone who ever heard this album wouldn't love it and buy it immediately. I just don't understand people sometimes. our only excuse is if you haven't heard it yet.