As Quatro Estacoes (Import) (CD)

• Category:  Music  »  Latin Music  »  Brazilian
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: October 19, 1998
• Label: EMI Records (Brazil)
• UPC: 724383583621
• WAPI (Tower ID): 105786023
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• Tower.com Sales Rank: #153067 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #3797 in Latin Music (See Top 100 Latin Music Bestsellers)
• #694 in Brazilian (See Top 100 Brazilian Bestsellers)

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Personnel: Renato Russo (vocals, guitar, viola, gaita, keyboards); Marcelo Bonf  (gaita, bass drum, percussion).

Audio Mixer: Mayrton Bahia.

Audio Remasterer: Peter Mew.

Photographer: Isabel Garc¡a.

After wiping their songwriting slate clean with 1987's outtakes collection Que Pa¡s � Este, a significatly refreshed Legiao Urbana proceeded to make its fourth album, 1989's As Quatro Esta‡oes (The Four Seasons), into arguably its most lasting musical monument. Indeed, even though it clearly lacked some of the genre-bending rough edges common to previous outings (mostly punk rock and electronic asides that often diluted as much as they diversified the contents), As Quatro Esta‡oes achieved an unprecedented, streamlined cohesiveness that has better withstood the test of time. One would never guess, while listening to career-best tracks like "Pais e Filhos" and "Meninos e Meninas," that Legiao Urbana had just circumvented a potentially difficult loss with the departure of longtime bassist Renato Rocha. In fact, singer/songwriter Renato Russo didn't even seem to notice, as he opened his formidable creative floodgates to pen a remarkable assortment of inspired singles -- pointed as always with reliably poetic and challenging lyrics, which, on this occasion seem deeply affected by religious imagery, both nuanced and blatant. The result is a seductive juggernaut of an album that feels utterly open-hearted and hopelessly secretive all at the same time. Jumping right in with a relaxed, confident pace, straightforward opener "H  Tempos" installs the album's heavily acoustic guitar drive, but it's the aforementioned "Pais e Filhos" (Parents and Sons) that attains the pantheon of Brazilian rock thanks to Russo's poignant lyrics, featuring an assortment of ruminations about families, broken and intact, functional and fractured, spelled out with deliberate, quiet, and beautiful resignation and acceptance. By the time it arrives at its central message: "we must love one another as if there were no tomorrow...because in truth there is not," As Quatro Esta‡oes is in full, unstoppable swing, and Legiao Urbana is reaching for a new form of variety. Uniquely sung in English, "Feedback Song for a Dying Friend" offers viscous hard rock before unexpectedly descending into an Arabic belly dance. The wonderfully spare, wistful "Quando o Sol Bater na Janela do teu Quarto" (When the Sun Hits the Window of Your Room) is surely one of Russo's most beguiling compositions, no matter that its acoustic guitars visibly quote The Smiths' Johnny Marr here and there. By comparison, the positively lush "Eu era um Lobisomem Juvenil" (I Was a Juvenile Wherewolf) wafts on and on in organ-driven, gothic exotica capped by Russo's typically abstruse analysis of teen angst. Although equally open to speculation, "1965 (Duas Tribos)" (Two Tribes) kick-starts side two in decidedly rocking, upbeat fashion before the fan favorite "Monte Castelo" installs a far more contemplative mood with its lyrics drawn straight out of Corinthians (the well-known verse "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, etc."). And so it goes...into the strangely hopeful and regretful-sounding "Maur¡cio," onto the provocative, sexually ambiguous "Meninos e Meninas," through the purely poppy "Sete Cidades," and finally closing with the echo-laden "Se Fiquei Esperando Meu Amor Passar." All told, these are the songs that make As Quatro Esta‡oes perhaps the archetype Legiao Urbana album. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia

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