Elis Regina
Elis (PolyGram 836 009)

I watched the sudden "Tropicalia" fixation develop among (mainly white) hipsters a few years back with a certain degree of hesitation. My problem is that finding things cool simply for the "wacked out" factor is kind of dismissive. That's me being defensive, I suppose, since I make virtually no distinction between things like "cool," "uncool," "good," "bad," "mainstream" or "avant-garde."

It's good, in a way, since I tend to not fall into trends, but it's bad in that when identifiable trends come around I am unable to attach to them. Like, I loved how the Tropicalia trend brought about some good reissues (the Mutantes discs, especially), but I wasn't able to tap into that as "new" or "hip," just as good music.

Somehow, I've lost the irony factor that drives so much good music toward the public eye. I end up attaching to albums like 1972's Elis by the great Elis Regina. Nothing wacked-out about it, just purely beautiful samba and jazzy ballads, with the perfect wonder of a voice on a bed of strings, acoustic guitar, piano, and light percussion.

If ever an album proved how much of a total sissy I am, this would be one. I don't know how "cool" this is, but it's a great fucking album.

For those who don't hold any specific prejudices for or against Brasilian music or any of its wonderful subgenres, Elis Regina will probably not sound too different from some of the other superstar singers from Brazil in the 60s and 70s. "It's all a bunch of gibberish" yells my ferociously anti-Portuguese Uncle Pâõlo, himself, ironically, from Portugal but raised in an English-speaking orphanage.

>But to those who are into Brasilian music, Regina stands tall as one of the greatest voices ever to come from that country, and truly one of the greatest pop singers ever. It's too bad that this idea of " foreign language" continues to marginalize figures like Elis in the English-speaking world. In a perfect world she'd be as famous as Barbra Streisand and Steve Urkel combined. (Interestingly, I am also the author of nearly 4,000 unique web pages of fan fiction detailing sex encounters between Barbra Streisand and Steve Urkel. I receive almost 10 hits a month.)

Elis was much more of a pure pop entertainer than folk like Gal Costa and Maria Bethânia, who came from a more radical background. But as with Tony Bennett, it's impossible not to be swayed by her voice regardless what you find "cool."

Tracks like "Olhos Abertos" prove why Elis was the greatest: the dramatic build of acoustic piano and strings, starting soft, with a perfectly beautiful melody that soars to total grandeur at the end. Just an amazi

ng performance, something I could play thousands of times without tiring. Similarly, something like "Cais," with brilliant "Eleanor Rigby" strings accompanied by Elis singing the wordless melody, building into a song like you've never heard sung. Or the always wonderful "Águas de Março," cut in a very similar style as the duet she'd do with Jobim himself two years later, but done solo here.

Her voice is so pleasing, so fully rich with personality and playfulness. Listening to her sing, it always sounds like it was fun to be Elis Regina, which apparently it wasn't (she OD'd in '82).

The majority of the album is slinky cocktail jazz, mainly acoustic and bolstered by dramatic and soothing strings, some featuring a cheesy electric keyboard that somehow fits in perfectly. "20 Años Blue" is the opener and sets the bluesy/samba feel. "Nada Sera Como Antes" starts off with an acoustic guitar and sounds like it's about to go into "My Sweet Lord" at any moment.

Some strutty jazz, some deep minor-key ballads, a whole lot of quasi-easy-listening gorgeousness. The kind of CD you can settle into a fucking great bath with, or alternately, clean great fuckin' house to.

Guaranteed, your house will be fucking cleaner than ever. Of course I'm saying "fuck" a lot to counter the lack of "hipness" associated with being such an unabashed Elis fan. In some ways it's like being a huge Petula Clark fan in an Ani Difranco world, but then, I like all of the above.

Loud Bassoon rating scale

Review by Kaki Pants