CRU

Seu Jorge:
CRU

[Wrasse; 2005]
Rating: 7.4
I found Rio native Seu Jorge's music like many of you did-- in a Wes Anderson movie. Like most folks watching The Life Aquatic, I was captivated and puzzled by his graceful, acoustic, Portuguese-language renditions of David Bowie covers such as "Starman" and "Five Years". Jorge also appeared in City of God, although that didn't have much to do with music unless there is some arcane connection between his role as Knockout and Diplo's Baile funk culture-mongering. Jorge himself was raised in the favelas so desperately portrayed in Fernando Meirelles' film, but there isn't any booty bass in his bossa nova.

On CRU, Jorge's voice and pristine guitar work make the tangentials of his success postscript. This is not to say his second solo album is perfect. In fact, it has holes near the end and at times lacks a backbone. But his samba is precise and frisky, especially on "Bem Querer" where his a- once harsh and flitting voice dances. The spare, booming percussion doesn't just suggest hip-hop-- it is hip-hop. Jorge has his voice-- at once buttery, soulful, and fierce-- mixed up front on every track, like a rapper. Album closer "Eu sou Favela" (translation: "I Am the Favela") is akin to Young Jeezy's recent declaration "I am the Trap". Territorial-identification and submersion is a distinctly prideful act, one not lost on someone who has witnessed murder. This is not to say he spits bars. But he's doing something like it throughout.

Jorge's cover of Serge Gainsbourg's "Chatterton" is music nerd fodder, but the song-- wrapped in a deep, ominous synth and rapid strumming-- is no French layabout. On it he gnarls his voice into a wretched growl and transmogrifies Gainsbourg's historical name-check into a funky séance, fit with shrilling witch moans at its languid conclusion. A press release compares Jorge's style to Nick Drake; that assessment isn't far off either. The accompaniment on many of the songs here is ethereal. Muted maracas shake, didgeridoos blow, and bird calls squawk. Only one song here is sung in English, a quietly rapturous cover of Elvis Presley's "Don't". It's a gorgeous reclamation project and prime girlfriend-mixtape material. Unless she understands Portuguese, in which case, the album's best song, the mellifluous opener "Tive Razão", should open anything with 2005 on the spine.

As a Favela-saluting everyman, Jorge mostly avoids America-seducing, though. That's why not being able to understand the words on CRU is both maddening and rewarding. You've got your World Music badge of honor. Now go find your Babelfish hyperlink.

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- Sean Fennessey, September 9, 2005