Olá turistas! (That’s Portuguese for “hello tourists!”). I’ve got another rad Souvenir of the Week for all of you and it is an album called The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions by Seu Jorge.
The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions is an acoustic Bossa Nova album by Brazilian musician and actor Seu Jorge (apparently pronounced “Say-ooh Zshorjee”). Seu Jorge is a pretty interesting guy; he first began to get recognition for his musical talents while living on the streets of the favelas near Rio de Janeiro. He has acted in several movies such as City of God and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, the later of which this album comes from.
Many of the songs from this album were featured on the original soundtrack for the movie The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, a movie you should totally watch if you haven’t already. If you look at the track listings and have a heart you’ll probably notice that most of the songs have the same names as famous David Bowie songs. That’s because they are actually covers of those songs and damn good ones if I say so myself.
With the exception of the song Team Zissou all the songs are Portuguese covers of David Bowie songs. If you think these are just the exact same tracks but with some forced Portuguese translated lyrics you’d be wrong. The style of Jorge’s guitar playing, the way he sings these covers, and the Portuguese language itself adds a whole new layer of beauty to these already amazing songs. On songs such as Rebel Rebel, Life On Mars?, and Changes he exhibits a warm, soft, and romantic singing style. While on tracks such as Ziggy Stardust and Rock N’ Roll Suicide you can really feel his passion coming through his vocals.
I don’t have much to say about the technical side of this album since its has a very stripped down and simple a sound, plus its made up of covers of songs that have been analyzed to death by now. I will say that if you want to listen to something beautiful then give this album a listen. Even if you don’t understand the lyrics you can still enjoy the beauty of Seu Jorge’s vocals and his guitar playing. Plus, imagine how cultured you’ll look to other people when they find out you listen to acoustic Bossa Nova covers of David Bowie songs sung in Portuguese.
Some of my extremely favorite songs off of this album are: Changes, Life on Mars?, Team Zissou, Rebel Rebel, Oh! You Pretty Things, and Rock N’ Roll Suicide. I highly recommend this album in general, but especially to people who want to listen to something relaxing or to have something nice off in the background while you study for your 50 midterms. Anyways, thanks for reading and I’ll see you guys next week!
Photo Credit: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Life-Aquatic-Studio-Sessions/dp/B000EPF8AS