Mister Trend's Random 10

After a few weeks away from the internets, my random 10 is back. This week's seventh song comes from Brazilian Gal Costa's 1973 album Índia. Costa is not very well known in the states, but generally those who do know her tie her to the Tropicalia movement of the late-1960s (of which she was one of the major figures). However, her career goes well beyond Tropicalia, and she, like Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, has spent decades bringing her own eclectic, multi-cultural vision of music to fruition. Índia is such an album, as Costa abandoned the psychedelic sound and screaming guitars of her late-1960s production for lush arrangements that go perfectly with her voice. And that voice is what makes Costa so special - her songwriting talent isn't of the caliber of Veloso and Gil, but she more than makes up for it with her voice, which is at the same time bold and fragile, projecting like nobody else's in Brazilian music. For those who only know her through tropicalia (or who don't know her at all), I cannot recommend her work highly enough (her psychedelic self-titled albums from the 1960s, Índia, or her double-album of her singing Tom Jobim's songs live are all great, if widely varying, starting points).


1. "Sugar Kane" - Sonic Youth
2. "Thou art gone up on high" - Messiah - George Friedrich Handel
3. "Entrada do Calafatinho/Bailado Santo Antonio Lisboa" - Brazilian Folkloric Music from the state of Pará
4. "Mamma" - Gilberto Gil
5. "Tomorrow is Already Here" - Stereolab
6. "Super-Connected" - Belly
7. "Da Maior Importância" - Gal Costa
8. "Easier" - Grizzly Bear
9. "Autumn Shade" - The Vines
10. "Ize of the World" - The Strokes