Cê

Caetano Veloso | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 23, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nonesuch
• ASIN: B000LKARD4
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #166,629 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The adventurous veteran rarely fails to surprise, as Caetano Veloso continues to confound the easy-listening expectations that surround Brazilian music. Co-produced by Veloso's son, Moreno, and featuring the crisp, edgy backing of a band of three musicians a generation younger than Caetano, this is his version of a rock album. The freshness of the arrangements appeals throughout, from the propulsive "Rocks" with its frenetic guitar break through the tom-tom throb and call-and-response vocals of "Waly Salomão" and the spoken word, soaring harmonies, and art-house atmospherics of the closing "O Herói" ("The Hero"). Yet the supple vocals, languid balladry, and seductive sensuality (at times so lyrically explicit in translation it might make Prince blush) render this very much a Veloso album above all else. --Don McLeese

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great, intimate rock album from Brazil's greatest singer, February 8, 2007

By 

B. Allen (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cê (Audio CD)

Veloso does something different with each of his albums, which can make it difficult for new listeners to figure out which CD to pick up first. Now he's made the answer easy: Ce. This disc is an intimate collection of songs whose style can perhaps (however inaccurately...) be described as calmly ferocious garage rock tunes. While he doesn't "rock" in the American sense, the stripped-down instrumentation of this album (guitar, bass, drums, voice) provides a great counterpoint to some of his other, more overblown works of recent years (the orchestral arrangements of Estampa Fina, the horns, strings and samba-rhythms of Livro, etc., and his inconsistent A Foreign Sound). The tunes on Ce are tightly-wound, and, though sometimes sweet, are actually angrier than Veloso has been in the past (he recently went through a rough divorce). The great rock tunes on this one are "Outro," "Odeio," and "Rocks." "Homem" talks of all the things about women of which he's not jealous, and a few of which he is: longevity and multiple orgasms. With this album Veloso also distances himself from the more soporific trends in Brazilian popular music (Bebel Gilberto, Marisa Monte, Veloso himself on some other albums). I highly recommend "Ce," as well as "Live in Bahia," and "Tropicalia II" (which he recorded with Brazil's other great, Gilberto Gil).

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful., January 23, 2007

By 

Just in Miami (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cê (Audio CD)

Cê" is a really surprising new album from Brazilian legend Caetano Veloso, and a big departure from the work he's been turning out for the last several years.
In fact, the more I listen to it the more I think that it might be the greatest album he's recorded since his late-'60s and early-'70s heyday. Veloso has long been tagged the Brazilian Bob Dylan, so I suppose that would make "Cê" his "LOVE AND THEFT", except that instead of basking in the patina of his old age with the world weariness of a hundred-year-old man, Veloso has taken the opposite track and somehow morphed back into a nineteen-year-old.
Seriously, it's almost bizarre to hear such a young sounding album from someone who must be in their mid-sixties, his voice is totally intact and as beautiful as ever and he's more than willing to take artistic chances that he really doesn't have to be taking at this point in his career.
No doubt his son Moreno deserves some credit for this, as he produced the record and wisely shed many of the adult contemporary trappings that have been Veloso's safe haven for many an album.
Totally devoid of syrup, the songs are all stripped down and jittery, with weird angular guitar playing creating an excellent tension to Veloso's beautiful, sweet delivery.
Unambiguously excellent, and further proof that the man is simply one of the greatest pop musicians of the last forty years.
Listen to it.
You'll love it.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The mastery continues, December 29, 2006

By 

Christopher Carton (Bakersfield, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ce (Audio CD)

This album is a significant change of direction, as this is the first Caetano Veloso release since 1989 which was not graced with the presence of cellist and master of arrangements, Jaques Morelenbaum. It is very clear that Caetano aimed for a North American sound, and that he was tapping into newer sounds through the help of his son, Moreno Veloso, and, more so, Moreno's friend Pedro Sá, who has played guitar on Caetano's last two concert tours. And yet, with the newer sounds, almost in spite of them, Caetano's genius remains the most notable presence. I am of the opinion that his 2001 release, "Noites Do Norte," was his best work of his entire career. I don't know if "Cé" is quite up to that mark, but it is a solid effort. "Minhas Lágrimas," the second song on the album, stands up with any of his classic songs. "Deusa Urbana" has a sound similar, at times, to "Fora da Ordem," the brilliant opening track on 1991's "Circulado." It's a strong effort the whole way through. The fact that Caetano has taken this turn should not come as a surprise: the influence of North American music, as well as Brazilian rock, on him in recent years have been obvious, even on parts of "Noites Do Norte," and Caetano has, since the dawn of his career, always tried to keep himself from being stuck in one place as a songwriter. For those who know his stuff well, I think the most apt description is that "Cé" is like the giant leap he took with Arto Lindsay on "Estrangeiro" and "Circulado," only with a sound which is probably the least samba-influenced since his mostly English-language albums of the early seventies. Those who truly understand Caetano's work over the years should be very pleased with "Cé."