Seu Jorge

• Cru [Wrasse, 2005] B-

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Cru [Wrasse, 2005]
There's a reason rhythm--and not the subtle stuff: beats stated and elaborated, on percussion instruments per se or string and electronic instruments deployed percussively--looms so large for us in the music of darker-skinned foreigners who don't sing in English. Romance of the primitive not required--rhythm is where the music is, and the meaning. For non-Lusophones, this brave Brazilian favelado--who has a record out here because he's a beguiling musical presence in the minor The Life Aquatic, not because he's a commanding dramatic presence in the major City of God--is selling timbre even when he sings an Elvis trifle in the original Leiber, and timbre isn't enough. The one keeper is a Serge Gainsbourg trifle consisting of proper names and the word "suicide." And it too needs its rhythm track. B-