Wikipedia:Today's featured article/March 21, 2019
Fôrça Bruta (Brute Force) is the seventh studio album by Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist Jorge Ben, recorded with the Trio Mocotó band (pictured) and released by Philips Records in September 1970. It introduced an acoustic samba-based music that was mellower, moodier, and less ornate than Ben's preceding work. In a largely unrehearsed nighttime recording session, the singer improvised and experimented with unconventional rhythmic arrangements, musical techniques, and elements of soul, funk, and rock. Ben's lyrics explored themes of romantic passion, melancholy, sensuality, and—in a departure from the carefree sensibility of past releases—identity politics and elements of postmodernism. A commercial and critical success, Fôrça Bruta established Ben as a leading artist in Brazil's Tropicália movement and pioneered a sound later known as samba rock. The album's first American release came in 2007, the same year that Rolling Stone Brasil named it the 61st greatest Brazilian music record. (Full article...)