Brazilian artists Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges’s “Clube Da Esquina” (The Corner Club) is a masterpiece and an album you must hear at least once in your life, due to its great production and vocal performances by both artists.
Released in 1972, “Clube Da Esquina” was met with low reviews from critics who didn’t understand the mix of genres in the album. The album features a mix of MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira), Pop, Jazz, Rock, Psychedelic Rock and Bossa Nova. The album was released in a time of media censorship in Brazil due to a military dictatorship and, as a result, the album is filled with metaphors that emphasize the frustrated emotions of the Brazilian people at the time.
The first track of the album, “Tudo O Que Você Podia Ser” (Everything That You Could Be), sung by Milton Nascimento, tells the story of a young individual giving up on their dreams because they’re not possible to achieve under the dictatorship. The track has a guitar lead by Lo Borges, followed by maracas and drums, blending both MPB and Psychedelic Rock.
The album starts pretty mellow. Tracks like “O Trem Azul” (The Blue Train) and “Nuvem Cigana” (Gypsy Cloud) have a calming summer vibe to them, which continues until the seventh track “Dos Cruces” (Two Crosses). The track, sung by Milton Nascimento, not only switches genres, but also languages, as the song is sung entirely in Spanish. The song is a Spanish Bolero re-sung by Nascimento and written by Basque composer Carmelo Larrea.
The album begins to show more of its psychedelic side with the song “Um Girassol Da Cor Do Seu Cabelo” (A Sunflower The Color Of Your Hair). This track performed by Lo Borges includes a symphony backed with drums and explores themes of death, with lyrics such as “If I die don’t you cry, no it’s just the moon.” This works well as the themes of the song class well with the almost emotional instrumental.
Following an interlude is the song “Clube Da Esquina N°2,” an instrumental track with humming and whispering by Milton Nascimento in the background. Nascimento believed the track did not need lyrics, years after its initial release the song would be completed with lyrics and re-uploaded onto Milton’s 1994 album “Angelus.” The track has been praised and is rated as one of the best on the album despite its lack of lyrics due to its beautiful composition.
The tracks following “Clube Da Esquina N°2” return to the calming mix of MPB and Psychedelic rock, suddenly jumping into an experimental love letter to psychedelia. “Pelo Amor De Deus” (For The Love Of God) has an almost sci-fi feeling to it with a great build-up to a beautiful ending. After the instrumental track “Lilla,” the album delves into a completely psychedelic rock sound with “Trem De Doido” (Crazy People Train), a song that explores a train en route to a mental facility being infested with rats and dirt. The track is one of the standout songs from the album despite having a low number of streams.
The last track, “Ao Que Vai Nascer” (What Will Be Born), starts with guitar and builds up into a finale incorporating drums and background instruments, slowly fading out, marking the end of the album. The track features a solo vocal performance by Milton Nascimento. The song originally had lyrics criticizing the military regime, but the lyrics were censored by the Brazilian government.
It took years for people to begin to understand this album. It only placed eighth on Brazilian charts and was considered “poor and disposable” by critics, but more than 50 years later, it is able to be engraved as one of the greatest albums of all time.
