The gem of LITA's Marcos Valle reissue series, 1971's
Garra is Valle's high-water mark and one of the finest pop albums of the 1960s/early-'70s, especially from a global perspective. It has a glow to it that suggests an auteur who can't put a foot wrong if he tried, and embodies everything great about early-'70s Brazilian pop. Songs like the incredible title track, "Que Bandeira," "Wanda Vidal" and "O Cafona" combine West Coast pop, Italian and French '60s influences, the Beatles (obviously) and the harmonic daring of the bossa nova generation to produce an album that has gathered an obsessive cult following over the years, even leading some to declare it Brazil's answer to
Pet Sounds or Histoire
De Melody Nelson. It certainly bests the contemporary works of his better-known peers Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, and while Valle was not a member of the Tropicalia movement, this album actually delivers on the promise of that scene, but in a more straightforward and accessible fashion, with a hummability factor shooting straight through the roof. This is the definitive edition this legendary record deserves, with extensive liner notes detailing the socio-political subtext of many of the songs, and lyrics translated from Portuguese to English for the first time ever -- quite simply an essential purchase.
-Greg Caz (January 25, 2013)
"Garra"
"Vinte E Seis Anos De Vida Normal "
LABEL NOTES:
"Garra
was originally released in 1971 and brought us the rare groove classic
'Wanda Vidal,' heralded by UK, European, and Japanese music fans years
after the disc's initial release. Amidst an intoxicating mix of
instruments, vocals, and orchestration, it's a deep cut on an event
deeper document. Any way you spin it, we at Light in the Attic are
extremely proud to present Garra as part of our four-album Marcos
Valle reissue campaign. Consisting of an ambitious string of early
1970s landmark studio sessions (sympathetic in spirit with Stevie Wonder
and Marvin Gaye's game changing work from the same era), Garra features extensive liner notes by San Francisco-based writer Allen Thayer (Wax Poetics)
with exclusive interview content and song-by-song breakdown from Marcos
himself. Fans new and old will finally have easy breezy access to these
once hard-to-find Brazilian classics. Tackling topics like Presidential
corruption, rampant consumerism, and the black power movement, Garra
is a welcome addition to any South American friendly record collection
and sits proudly with the best of Brazil. File after Os Mutantes, but
before Caetano Veloso."
){kind=link}