Gal Costa [Cinema Olympia] cover

Gal Costa [Cinema Olympia]

Released

Only a few months separate Gal Costa’s two albums from 1969, but while the prior featured psychedelic flourishes, the latter album is wholly doused in acid. The album might serve as Tropicália’s full-throated riposte to what was emanating from San Francisco at the time, blowing the likes of Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane out of the water. With Lanny’s flamethrower guitar work front and center and Gal’s sweet vocals turning into a jungle cat roar, the album ranges from hard rock blasts (see opener “Cinema Olympia”) to the buzzing MENA stomper “Tuareg.” “Objeto Sim, Objeto Não” might be the defining psychedelic song of the era: it evolves from Echoplexed groans and feedback into a swinging big band number before melting back down into primordial noise, with Gal strutting through the sonic madness in her unflappable style.

Andy Beta

Suggestions
Acabou Chorare cover

Acabou Chorare

Os Novos Baianos
Tudo Ben cover

Tudo Ben

Various Artists, Jorge Ben
Tribal Rites cover

Tribal Rites

Bill Brewster
Gilberto Gil cover

Gilberto Gil

Gilberto Gil
Clube Da Esquina cover

Clube Da Esquina

Lô Borges, Milton Nascimento
Transa cover

Transa

Caetano Veloso
Os Mutantes cover

Os Mutantes

Os Mutantes
Rain Dance cover

Rain Dance

Naná Vasconcelos
Maggot Brain cover

Maggot Brain

Funkadelic