Somethings are beyond space and time despite being in it, and affecting elements therein. Such is the voice of Caetano Veloso. So in lieu of offering a critique of "The Best of Caetano Veloso", I shall proffer my best attempt with the facet of myself that transcends boundaries in a psalm:

Caetano

Your Voice is like an Angel at the "Gate Beautiful",
whose charge is giving wings to SOULS fortunate to come that far
Your Voice, Your LIFE: your Voice is LIFE,
endearing responses from any organic as it drifts overhead; aerial to, yet somehow earthly and at the HEART of the matter;
taking hold of what is exterior and interior and reconciling these two hands; hand in hand the conflict ends from the purity and savoir faire in your Voice

I thought I was familiar with enchantment, until I heard you sing
Your Voice reminded me; artfully, rapturously admonished me, that there was still yet more to be caressed down deep in me

Despite the despot, and the fanatic, and the self-obsessed; in spite of their daily oppression, they cannot undo the design of a wings mission;
to take us far away from rancor, though we are still standing near.

© Vernell Garrett

Enlightening to me because I actually thought that I had everything good out there. This album put an end to my arrogance and at the same time began my journey in a new world of true musical expression and talent.

"The painter Paul Gauguin loved the light of Guanabara Bay / The composer Cole Porter loved the lights of her night / Guanabara Bay / The anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss detested Guanabara Bay / It looked to him like a toothless mouth / And I -- if I knew her less would I love her more? / I'm blind from so often seeing her, from so often staring starry / What is a beautiful thing?" -- O Estrangeiro

Any great musician must be some sort of philosopher as well. Otherwise they're just playing so many notes. Art presents us with somebody's perspective of the truth. Some artists are charlatans and try to paint everything with a rosy glow that will please everyone (and satisfy no one) and that can be safely hung in or played in a dentist's office. Some artists suffer, but haven't the intelligence or skill to dignify the awfulness of their art. Some artists only want to talk about themselves, which is okay sometimes.

But a really good artist -- that is someone who present us with the ugly and the beautiful, enthusiasm and lethargy, sorrow and pleasure, all of it. And Caetano Veloso does it with subtlety and tremendous good taste.

"And the epic grandeur of a still unfinished people / Attracts us, dazzles us and excites us / Nothing matters, not the profile of that mansion / Not the TV cameras, not even that Paul Simon record / No one, no one is a citizen / If you go to the party in Pelourinho, and even if you don't go / Think of Haiti, pray for Haiti / Haiti's right here, Haiti's not quite here." -- Haiti

This Best Of Album gives you Veloso in various epochs of his career, so it's a pretty good overview. There are the dissonant noises in "O Estrangeiro" like echoes at a subway station, the gentle strumming and chanted "Manhattan" litany of "Manhata", the cathedral hymn-like "Michelangelo Antonioni", and the classic Brasiliana of "Na Baixa do Sapateiro".

Buy this album and listen to it many times. There is even a special message for us Americans and English (who knows, maybe even the French are implicated): it's great that some of our citizenry love international music. Otherwise that music might never get produced. But it is a shame that often people must leave the countries which are the source of their music in order to propagate the melodies. I hope international stardom has brought Caetano Veloso the freedom to do as he pleases.

"Some may like a soft Brazilian singer / But I've given up all attempts at perfection." -- O Estrangeiro