Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Celebrating a friendship, March 15, 2005
This is both the high point and the beginning of the end of a long friendship (as beautifully told in the book Sonhos nao Envelhecem, available only in portuguese :-( )
The Clube da Esquina was a loosely bound group of friends from Belo Horizonte, a city located in the middle of the Brazilian territory, in the Minas Gerais state, far away from the sea. They got together in the 70s to play music, drink beer and talk about the Beatles, a band they loved.
Milton was the obvious star in the group but all of them were immensely talented and had a lot to contribute as is clear in their solo work (Lo Borges albums are masterpieces if you are able to overlook his vocal flaws and Beto Guedes is pretty good too).
Notice that by then Milton was not the superstar he became after. This album is signed by both him and Lo Borges. This is still a group effort.
The album has a very free style. It sounds lyrical, obviously Beatles influenced, smooth, gentle, the Brazilian rhythms presented there are not the ones you are used to, a lot comes from their native Minas Gerais state. It is the product of a group of friends having a lot of fun playing together.
The group began to dissolve slowly after this album. Milton got famous, started hanging out with a different crowd, you know how it goes, how all friendships end...
The follow-up to this double LP is another double LP (Clube da Esquina 2) that features major stars of the time, lavish production and has a different beauty to it, maybe it is even more musically relevant than this one. But this is the more sincere and is generally considered the best.
My personal opinion is that if you like Brazilian music you should have both :-)
|
|
|
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This Album changed my life, November 29, 2001
I first heard this incredible masterwork of sonic bliss about 3 years ago. This is the first CD I've ever heard that contains some of the background music that's played in heaven. Don't believe me? Listen to track 11 "Clube da Esquina 2" and the melody might bring you to joyful tears. The lyrics are of someone who is a deep thinker. They explore life, love, loss, longing, angst, they just run the gamut of human emotions in this album. To anyone who has ever listened to Pink Floyd or the Beatles later albums and thought "I get it, I want more" here is the more you asked for. If you don't speak portuguese you will still understand brilliance when it's smacked in your face. It's worth learning a whole new language just to understand this cd in my opinion. The melodies are just haunting. The musicianship and creativity in the effects boggles the mind. Every time I listen to this cd I wonder who has come close to touching this kind of mastery of the art of musical storytelling, well maybe Pink Floyd. But don't let my comparison make you think that Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges ripped anyone off, on the contrary, they were pioneers. BUY THIS CD AND CHANGE YOUR LIFE!
|
|
|
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Third of Milton's Masterpieces, November 17, 2003
This is another stunning jewel by Milton (check Minas and Geraes being, to me, the other two). It precedes those two other albums by about a couple of years, yet it does not stay behind in terms of its capacity to move and surprise with its beauty. Unlike Minas and Geraes, this album is more of a collaborative effort, counting on almost every great musician in Brazil to give it its identity (see the excellent review by David Mijares, right before mine, for a thorough and loving chronicle of what this album represented in Brazilian popular music and the people who brought it to be such a tremendous work).
Because it is the work of a community of talented artists, rather than a personal vision alone, it does not have the integrity of the other works mentioned but this is, by far, not a loss. In the contrary, it offers, instead, an edge and diversity that keeps stunned from beginning to end. You have to remember that it was recorded in 1972, to appreciate the revolutionary quality of what it offers, and recognize to what extent its music was out on the proverbial skinny branches of the Tropicalia's tree. And, whereas other albums called "experimental" suffer from a certain uneven output, this one hits the mark tune after tune. If Minas or Geraes could be considered his Sgt. Pepper or White Album (to draw an analogy with Lennon and McCartney whom Milton loves), Clube Da Esquina 1 is his Revolver.
If you can afford it, buy all three of these beauties, your soul will thank you for their unending nourishment.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
~ Elis Regina & Antonio Carlos Jobim
~ Milton Nascimento
~ Milton Nascimento
~ Gal Costa
See all 21 tracks on this disc
by Milton Nascimento 
