76. Astrud Gilberto - Beach Samba (1967)

1. Stay
2. Misty Roses
3. Face I Love
4. Banda (Parade)
5. Oba, Oba
6. Canoeiro
7. I Had the Craziest Dream
8. Bossa Na Praia (Beach Samba)
9. My Foolish Heart
10. Dia das Rosas (I Think of You)
11. You Didn't Have to Be So Nice
12. Não Bate O Coração

I'm sorry, but I was under the impression that I had to hear these albums before I died. I mean, that's what the book is called, isn't it? In some imagined scenario, this crazy bastard's got a gun to my head and if I don't educate myself about the most important and influential albums of the past 50 years, I'm fuckin' DEAD, right?

It is albums like these that makes this imaginary death threat seem that much more hollow. I'm pretty damn sure that if I had died without listening to this album, I'd be just fine. In fact, I'd have had an extra half hour of my time.


It's not as though this album is bad. Considering some of the albums  I've heard/forced myself to listen to over the years, this was at least listenable. But that's just it: that's  all it is. There's nothing at all groundbreaking about this album. In fact, considering it's the first album from 1967 which I can already tell you is one hell of an exciting year, this shit sounds downright anachronistic. It's the sort of music I'd expect one of the characters from Mad Men to have playing in the background in 1962, not touted as one of the greatest/most influential albums of 1967. It's bossa nova at its most cliche and pedestrian. Essentially, it's entirely made up of songs that sound like 'Girl from Ipanema' but aren't as good.


I suppose this would be the part of the review where I mention the individual songs, but what good what that do? The only individual comment I could make is to wonder why the hell she thought having a duet with her kid was a good idea.  Children just shouldn't be allowed to sing, just look at Justin Bieber. Yeah, I know, he's actually 16 or something, but as far as I'm concerned, he's been caught in a temporal causality loop and is forever stuck as a high voiced android.


But I digress. Welcome to the year 1967. You thought '66 was some hot shit? This is even better. Although most of the sounds associated with '67 started in earnest the year before, this was the year that they entered the public conscience in a big way. In this year, rock began to be taken seriously as a viable artistic medium, rather than just a bunch of catchy pop tunes. This shift in thinking would result in some of the greatest and most influential albums of all time. This is not one of them. 3/10