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1
Tropicália: ou Panis et Circencis
The 1968 group manifesto, and the best first stop because it introduces everyone at once: Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Os Mutantes, Tom Zé and Nara Leão, with Rogério Duprat's arrangements tying it together. Panis et Circenses, sung by Os Mutantes, is the track to start with: a lovely melody that ends with the sound of a family dinner party being slowed down and cut off.
2
Caetano Veloso (1967)
Released
Caetano Veloso's 1968 solo album is the most song-friendly of the movement's records. Alegria, Alegria, a breezy pop song stuffed with news headlines and brand names, is the easiest way in, and the track Tropicália, which gave the movement its name, piles up images of Brazil over Duprat's dramatic brass. Clarice shows the quieter, more poetic side.
More about Caetano Veloso3
Gilberto Gil (1971)
Released
Gilberto Gil's 1968 album, made with Os Mutantes as his backing band, is where north-eastern rhythms meet psychedelic rock head on. Domingo no Parque tells a story of jealousy and murder at a fairground through capoeira rhythm, orchestra and sound effects, and still works as a pop song. Frevo Rasgado shows a carnival rhythm driven by electric guitar.
More about Gilberto Gil4
Os Mutantes (2018)
Released
The 1968 debut by brothers Arnaldo Baptista and Sérgio Dias with Rita Lee. It is the most fun record here: fuzz guitars, home-made effects and playful studio tricks applied to tunes as sweet as any 1960s pop. Panis et Circenses opens it, and their cover of Jorge Ben's A Minha Menina shows how naturally they mixed Brazilian swing with garage rock.
More about Os Mutantes5
Gal Costa (1969)
Released
Gal Costa's 1969 solo debut catches her moving from the soft, bossa nova style she started with towards a louder rock voice. That shift is what makes it inviting: Baby, a gentle Veloso song, sits beside Divino Maravilhoso and Não Identificado, where the arrangements get stranger around her. Choose it to hear the movement's experiments through one of its great voices.
More about Gal Costa6
Tom Zé (1970)
Released
Tom Zé was the movement's satirist and its most restless experimenter, and this 1970 album, his second, keeps his odd ideas in short, catchy songs. Dry humour, jerky rhythms and spoken asides sit next to sing-along choruses. It is a gentler way into his work than the more radical records he made later in the decade, and it rewards listeners who like wit in their pop.
More about Tom Zé7
Mutantes (1969)
Released
Os Mutantes' second album, from 1969, is more ambitious in the studio and just as tuneful. It runs from manic rock to almost baroque ballads, with jokes and sound collages in between. Dom Quixote is the track to start with, a song that swerves between styles without losing its hook; it shows why the band are the most approachable route into the movement's experiments.
More about Mutantes8
Caetano Veloso (1967)
Released
Caetano Veloso recorded his voice and guitar for this 1969 album in Salvador while confined there after his arrest, and Rogério Duprat added arrangements in the studio afterwards; soon after, Veloso left for exile in London. The mood is more inward than his 1968 record. Irene, a tiny, joyful song written in prison, and Atrás do Trio Elétrico, a carnival song, show its range.
More about Caetano Veloso9
Gilberto Gil (1971)
Released
Gilberto Gil made this 1969 album before he too left for exile in London, and it is his most futuristic record of the period, with songs about computers and space travel. Cérebro Eletrônico is the track that shows that side. Aquele Abraço, his warm farewell to Rio and Brazil, became one of his best-loved songs and shows how human the album stays despite its science-fiction ideas.
More about Gilberto Gil10
Gal
Gal Costa's second album of 1969 is the loudest record of the movement, built around Lanny Gordin's wild electric guitar and her own screams, growls and soaring high notes. It is the most experimental album on this list, but her voice makes it gripping rather than difficult. Choose it after her first 1969 album to hear how far she travelled in a few months.
11
A Banda Tropicalista do Duprat
Rogério Duprat, a conductor with a background in avant-garde classical music, arranged many of the movement's key records, and this 1968 album puts his own ideas in front. He takes familiar pop songs and Brazilian tunes and dresses them in brass fanfares, collage and sound effects, often with Os Mutantes playing. Choose it if you are curious about the orchestral imagination behind the singers' records.
12
A divina comédia ou ando meio desligado (1970)
Released
Os Mutantes' third album, from 1970, moves towards heavier rock, organ and rhythm and blues, but keeps the jokes and the melodies. Ando Meio Desligado, a lazy, stoned groove with a chorus that sticks, is the track to start with. Choose it if you come from late-1960s rock and want the bridge from Tropicália into Brazilian psychedelic rock.
More about A divina comédia ou ando meio desligado
