Released 1969 Producer Manuel Barenbein | Length 39:12 Gal Costa
(1969) Gal
(1969) | |
Genre Tropicália
psychedelic pop Label Phillips
Dusty Groove (reissue) | ||
Gal Costa is the first solo album by the Brazilian singer Gal Costa, released in 1969. It was ranked the 80th best Brazilian album of all time by the Brazilian Rolling Stone magazine.
Belonging to the 1960s Tropicália, the album features songwriting by various artist associated with the movement, with whom Costa had previously worked with in the 1968 collaboration album Tropicália: ou Panis et Circencis. These include Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and Torquato Neto.
Composition
The music in the album has been considered unprecedented. Andy Beta of The Pitchfork Review described the album as "the equivalent of Barbra Streisand recording with Boredoms" and "one of the heaviest documents of Tropicália." It represent a strong departure from the style of Domingo, her debut album recorded with Caetano Veloso, which featured a "set of airy, somewhat standard bossa nova tunes". Writing for Brazilian edition of Rolling Stone, Marcus Petro considered that, despite incorporating new influences from Janis Joplin and James Brown, Costa's music still retained strong bossa nova elements. The sound of Gal Costa has been called "truly psychedelic and very much of its time, but also full of subtlety, as befits the melodic complexity and harmonic freedom" of its songs.