Review: Tom Ze’s ‘Estudando a Bossa (Nordeste Plaza)’

"A mainstay of Brazil's late '60s Tropicalia movement, singer-composer Tom Ze has spent five decades subverting musical conventions through a wry, captivating body of work that's wowed critics but never earned him the popular acclaim of his countrymen Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil."

Blame it on the bossa nova

"Zé continues his lament and Byrne continues his translation—and the difference between the two vocal styles—Zé’s sandpaper-y moans and Byrne’s dispassionate and straightforward delivery creates a comic effect. Ze’s over-emoting comes off as purposely solipsistic. Byrne’s deadpan conveys a droll double-meaning."