Tom Zé - Estudando o Pagode: Na Opereta Segregamulher e Amor

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Tom Zé is 70 years old. He is a legend, having secured a high place in Brazilian culture, with probably nothing left to prove. Even so, he is by no means stuck in the past - well into the second half of his life, he still attmpts to sound cutting-edge and avant-garde. Zé feels a need to stay relevant in the present times and deliver a message, perhaps best explained with his most famous quotation: "I don't make art, I make spoken and sung journalism."

The title, "Estudando o Pagode: Na Opereta Segregamulher e Amor", reveals alot about the album. Firstly, "Estudando o Pagode" literally means "studying the pagode." Pagode is a Brazilian musical style which fuses Samba with African rhythms, performed electronically in its modern incarnation. The subheading reveals the central themes of the album, one being women's struggle against oppression and the other being love, while the word "opereta" ("operetta ", a small opera) hints at the scope and unity of the record.

The album is driven by its message. This, ultimately, is a disadvantage for those who do not speak Portugese. It is a shame, since the message may the album's strongest and more important aspect. Zé manages to contain classical elements of drama, female empowerment, typical pagode machoist attitudes, and so on. The overriding theme, however, is the oppression of women throughout history, and thus, the album's focus time travels quite often.

Sonically, "Estudando o Pagode" is ambitious and complex. That said, however, some listeners will no doubt find the sound off-putting at times. As is the case with a lot of artists who attempt to break the mold, most people will likely either hate it or love it (think of The Mars Volta, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Fanotmas, etc). Unusual instrumentation is plentiful - I'm pretty sure I heard leaves used as wind instruments and typwriters and kitchen utensils as percussion.

However, there is certainly some level of accesibility here - a suprising amount, to be honest. For every rather bizarre song like "Pagode - Enrredo Dos Tempos do Medo", there's some rather accessible songs like "Canção de Nora" or "Duas Opiniões."

Although the concept behind the album is very important, the songs do stand as their own entities. None are too long or over-indulgent (as is the case too many times in experimental, concept albums).

In the end however, I still feel the message is very important. People who do not speak the language will be missing a lot of it. Which brings us back to how it stands as music: the sound can either strongly appeal to you or not at all. As such, it's very hard to quantify this review. This album deserves a chance from just about everyone. It accomplishes what it sets out to do, and really it's up to the listener to decide whether those are goals to be set out for in the first place.

-Luis