I got this last April, in the midst of the Barbican's Tropicália festival last April. I went to two of the shows there, which couldn't have been more different. Caetano Veloso, cool, smooth, distinguished and a little wistful — he displayed a remarkable ability to stand on one foot for long periods, and then switch to the other foot (he must have done a lot of training with the Alexander Technique, I reckon). Then Tom Zé, utterly wild and unhinged.
It's a great compilation, by SoulJazz, the people who also did New York Noise, completed by 50-page booklet that fills in the cultural and political context (and no, I haven't read it all yet). One of the good things about it is that it doesn't try and cover every nook and cranny of the movement: it's happy to include two versions of Bat Macumba and multiple songs by each of Veloso, Zé, Os Mutantes, Gilberto Gil and Gal Costa. Lots of classics here, including A Minha Menina and Irene.
My favourite by some distance, however, is Zé's Jimmy Renda-Se. This track is sixth in my 'most played' in iTunes. Brian Eno's Windows 95 theme (all six seconds of it) is top by some distance, since it features on every iPod playlist I make, for obvious reasons. Then there's Theme One as played by Van Der Graaf Generator, for that Friday Rock Show nostalgia. The Ventures' Hawaii Five-O theme and Kylie's Can't Get You Out of My Head are next — can't go wrong with them. Next is Experimental Music Love from 69 Love Songs, because it's only 29 seconds long, and works better if you loop it so that it lasts seven or eight minutes. Then Jimmy Renda-Se.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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