cê

cê
Studio album by Caetano Veloso
Released	1 September 2006
Genre	Indie rock, Pop punk
Label	Mercury, Nonesuch
Producer	Pedro Sá and Moreno Veloso
Caetano Veloso chronology
Onqotô 2005 cê 2006 Cê ao vivo 2007

cê is an album by Brazilian singer, songwriter, and guitarist Caetano Veloso. Released on 1 September 2006 on Mercury Records, the album took its title from the colloquial Portuguese word meaning you. It was written with Veloso's band in mind, which was chosen in part by percussionist Pedro Sá. cê received mixed critical commentary; several critics specifically noted the album's lyrical focus on human sexuality.

Title and cover

The word cê is a shortened version of the Portuguese personal pronoun você, meaning you. Veloso says that cê is a more "colloquial" version of você, used often in everyday speech. When he writes lyrics, Veloso typically writes the word você, but sings cê when performing.^[1] The inspiration for the album's title came when he wrote cê instead of você and thought of it as an appropriate title.^[1]

Veloso designed the album's cover himself, as he had done before for three other albums. He went through a long design process in which the cover's colors, fonts, and text positioning were changed frequently. Veloso chose the color purple for the cover's background because it is mentioned multiple times in the album itself.^[1]

Band and recording

Veloso wrote most of the album's material with its band in mind and played the music as a complete unit with the band. Guitarist and percussionist Pedro Sá had already been confirmed as a participant on the album, and he was invited to pick other musicians for it.^[1] cê's primary recording was completed in two weeks as a result of the extensive rehearsals conducted in the few months prior, and the extended recording process, including the production of rhythm tracks, extended for another six weeks.^[1]

When asked about the "tightness" of the album's sound by The Boston Globe's Siddhartha Mitter, Veloso responded that he had intended for the songs to be realized in this manner and that the young musicians he had hired to work on the album allowed him to do this.^[2]

Lyrics and themes

cê's lyrical subject matter received attention from nearly every critic reviewing it, described as "carnal" by New York Times reviewer Nate Chinen.^[3] Brazilian music expert Dário Borim Jr. wrote, "Veloso's disc as a whole displays a plethora of poetic representations and pervasive preoccupation with sex and gloom."^[4] In particular, Borim noted the album's theme of unconventional sexual roles and Veloso's uncertainty of his sexual orientation.^[5]

Critical Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[6]
Wilson & Alroy's	[7]
Robert Christgau

cê received a rating of 75 percent on the online review aggregator Metacritic, which corresponds with "generally favorable reviews."^[8] Writing for The New Yorker, music journalist Sasha Frere-Jones described the album as closest to indie rock, compared to Veloso's previous records—"'cê' resists the anodyne charms of Brazilian pop, favoring loud, blocky rhythms more common to American garage bands."^[9] Frere-Jones went on to describe the fluidity of the album, falling very loosely into the rock music genre classification.^[9] Ben Ratliff, of The New York Times, noted that cê fell on the "petty end of the emotional spectrum"^[10] and that its compositions were raw and unpolished.^[10]

Allmusic's Philip Jandovský rated the album with three out of five stars. He wrote that cê, while not poor, lacked the creative spark that is Veloso's trademark.^[11] Conversely, Mallory O'Donnell of Stylus Magazine, who gave the album an A- rating, saw it as one of Veloso's better recent works, compared to 2004's A Foreign Sound, in particular.^[12] Village Voice critic Mike Powell also compared cê to A Foreign Sound and noted that cê's relative simplicity was its "triumph".^[13] David Wilson of Wilson & Alroy's gave the album two stars and felt that "the band is out of tune, out of time, and out of ideas".^[7] cê was awarded the Latin Grammy for Best Singer-Songwriter Album.^[14]

Personnel

• Caetano Veloso – guitar, vocals
• Pedro Sá – guitar
• Ricardo Dias Gomes – keyboards, bass guitar
• Marcello Callado – drums

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Veloso, Caetano, et al.. "cê EPK". Nonesuch Records. Archived from the original on June 28, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080628075312/http://www.nonesuch.com/caetano/. Retrieved 2008-05-17. 
2. ^ Mitter, Siddhartha (2007-11-02). "At 65, he increases range". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2007/11/02/at_65_he_increases_range/. Retrieved 2008-05-17. 
3. ^ Chinen, Nate (2007-11-21). "Singing About Dark Emotions, but Keeping Things Upbeat". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/arts/music/21velo.html. Retrieved 2008-05-17. 
4. ^ Borim (2007), p. 11
5. ^ Borim (2007), p. 12
6. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r930777
7. ^ ^{a b} Wilson, David. "Wilson & Alroy's Record Reviews – Caetano Veloso". warr.org. http://www.warr.org/caetano.html#Ce. Retrieved 2011-1-30. 
8. ^ Staff. "cê by Caetano Veloso". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/velosocaetano/ce. Retrieved 2008-05-17. 
9. ^ ^{a b} Frere-Jones, Sasha (2007-01-29). "Cool Heat". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2007/01/29/070129crmu_music_frerejones. Retrieved 2008-05-17. 
10. ^ ^{a b} Ratliff, Ben (2007-01-22). "Critics' Choice: New CDs". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A01E1DC1F30F931A15752C0A9619C8B63. Retrieved 2008-05-28. 
11. ^ Jandovský, Philip. "cê > Review". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r930777. Retrieved 2008-05-17. 
12. ^ O'Donnell, Mallory (2006-10-27). "Caetano Veloso - cê". Stylus Magazine. http://www.stylusmagazine.com/reviews/caetano-veloso/c.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-28. 
13. ^ Powel, Mike (2007-02-13). "Brazilian Crooner Ain't Suitable for Framing Just Yet". The Village Voice. http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0708,powell,75873,22.html. Retrieved 2008-05-28. 
14. ^ "Latin Grammy Award Winners". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. http://www.grammy.com/nominees/latin/search?artist=&title=&year=All&genre=52. Retrieved August 22, 2011. 

References

• Borim Jr., Dário (2007-04-12). "Unpredictable Coherence: Caetano Veloso Beyond "Ethnic" and Easy-Listening Tunes" (PDF). Portuguese Literary & Cultural Studies. Archived from the original on June 9, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080609161807/http://www.plcs.umassd.edu/pdfs/2007-04-12-DarioOnCaetano.pdf. Retrieved 2008-05-17.