Customer Reviews

India

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been waiting for this release for a very, very long time. Gal Costa opens this very unusual album with two Paraguayan folkloric songs--"India" and "Milho Verde"--in a way that is both virtuoso and experimental (Milho Verde is not Portuguese folklore, contrary to what the label says). But the highest points are two Caetano Veloso tracks, "Relance" and "Da maior importância". "Relance" is a dizzying rhythmical experience, and "Da maior importância" is probably the most subtle piece I ever heard from Gal: I have listened to it dozens of times, and it keeps getting better.
This CD is not your average Brazilian music album. It is not even your average Gal Costa album. But if you are a fan, you will appreciate "India" for its uniqueness and delicacy.
Warmly recommended.

India was first released in 1973, and immediatelly censored by the dictatorship in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
In my opinion Gal Costa has a unique tone in her voice, which varies in each song, India is a beautiful cry of love and no one has ever been able to sing it like Gal Costa did, Milho Verde was a forgoten portuguese folk song, until Gal recorded, Presente cotidiano is a classic written by Luiz Melodia, and Gal Costa homage to Lupcinio Rodrigues in Volta is wonderful, Relance and Da Maior Importância by Caetano Veloso is also unique in Gal Costa's voice, Passarinho by Tuzé de Abreu is my favorite track, in which Gal has a especial way to show us that she can sing like a bird, she also made another homage to Jards Macalé and our grand poet Wally Sailormoon in Pontos de Luz, and finally Desafinado by T.Jobim and Newton Mendonça which was the only song the midia took notice from this wonderful and rare album of Gal Costa.
In all this is a wonderful album to have in your collection of rarety and beauty...enjoy it!!!!

Actually, Milho Verde was rediscovered by Jose Afonso in his 1971 Cantigas do Maio -- probably the best album ever in the history of Portuguese folk music. Regardless, India is an excellent album from one of the best voices who has ever sung in Portuguese.

"Índia" is one of my favorite Gal albums for many reasons. Though it's much more subtle than her previous releases, it remains a very complex and at times, challenging listen. This albums essentially marks the end of gal's "rock" period, though it's evident by listening to the first few tracks on the album that she still had plenty of tricks up her sleeve. While I'd definitely consider this a folk record at it's core, there's a very prominent progressive, yet oddly accessible element attached to quite a few of the tracks. A transitional album, "Índia" catches Gal straddling the lines of MPB superstardom and the avant garde tendencies that played such a huge part in much of her earlier work.

Listen to: "Índia", "Volta", "Presente Cotidiano", "Desafinado".