It's also a hell of a lot of fun to listen and dance to.
It is the most artfully rendered and sophisticated recording in her catalog, the work of a mature artist in full command of a sonic language. Whether Tropix comes across as a reinvention of Ceu's sound or just the next phase in her evolution may be up for debate, but the album's quality is not. He adorns the first with a Salsoul Orchestra-styled chart behind rich, poppy R&B, the second adds a psychedelic disco panorama to bubbling keys, punchy guitar, and crisp snare breaks, while the third delivers a Richard Evans-esque arrangement that pastes swirling, soulful violin and viola colors onto a pumping electro dancefloor groover.
The three final cuts, "Camadas," A Nave Vai," and "Rapsódia Brasilis" are all painted with strings written and performed by Miguel-Atwood Ferguson. "A Menina e O Monstro" flirts with rockist guitars, but the shimmering celeste makes it irresistibly sweet (even if the rest of the orchestration is purposefully angular). The collision of '80s synth pop and late disco frame the sensual "Etílica-Ineterlúdio," with a sweeping cinematic bridge as Ceu duets with Tulipa Ruiz. "Amor Pixelado" spends its first third in restrained pop melody before spiny electro funk dominates, adorned in spacy 8-bit beeps as Ceu shivers her lyric through to its cool conclusion.
The only thing holding the track together is its breezy, infectious melody. But just after the second verse, Talking Heads-esque guitars, analog sequencers, drum machines, and loops explode from the center. Ceu starts singing softly and breathlessly, breezing through the dark subterranean textures. First single and opening track "Perfume Do Invisível" employs a nocturnal analog synth, muted tom-tom, and a sparse bassline. A fun, entertaining, rocking feature with rising star talent presented. Thriple Threat is an action filled thriller loaded with bikinis, bikes, and brawls. Exassassin, Dina Lo Bianca, receives an offer she cannot refuse, thrusting her back into the world of hired guns, espionage, and surveillance.
She wrote all but one song here, a deliciously arranged cover of obscure psych-band Fellini's "Chico Barque Song." (Its infectious backing chorus comes right out of Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side.") The cut-and-paste stylistic juxtapositions in this mix are all drenched in groove - no matter how icy. Download 'Triple Threat' Movie Divx/Hd/Full HD. Though her co-producers have advanced pedigrees, Ceu is clearly in the driver's seat. Here she fully indulges in late-'70s post-disco, early-'80s R&B, new wave pop, soundtrack music, and mid-20th century MPB. They make up half of her backing band, along with guitarist Pedro Sa and bassist Lucas Martins. It was co-produced with Naçao Zumbi drummer Pupillo and keyboardist Hervé Salters ( General Elektriks). It is drenched in cool, late-night atmospherics, humid musical intersections, and deliberately artificial textures. Fourth album Tropix is simultaneously her most radically futuristic and deliberately retro. Her recombinant strategies always bear her idiosyncratic melodic and lyric signature, making her a standout on the global pop scene. That said, she's never sounded like anyone but herself. She's delved into everything from EDM, trip-hop, and dubby reggae to Tropicalia, bossa, samba, and MPB. Unfortunately, for the most part, the filmmakers seem hell-bent on eliding fascinating local detail in order to keep their rickety roller-coaster plot on track.On her records, Brazilian singer and songwriter Ceu soaks up influences like a sponge. Despite all the sex, gunplay, and self-conscious tough guy (and girl) posturing, one of the most interesting sequences in the film is basically a cutaway to an ordinary workday on a banana plantation. The gorgeous Costa Rican setting and the percolating salsa score (by Walter Flores) promise more site-specific interest than the film delivers. Solange's intrusive voice-over is too clever by half. Performances are adequate, though Owen Wilson imitator Ryan Barton-Grimley is a standout, and the lovely Michelle Jones makes would-be femme fatale Solange a more interesting character than the writing deserves. AKA: Tropix (Costa Rica) Plot: Erotic Thriller (2004) A tropical vacation goes sordid when Corrine learns her husband. Screenwriter Livia Linden and her co-director, Percy Angress, get by mostly on tone (nicely sardonic) and apparent unbridled enthusiasm. But it's not as though anything else going on in the movie makes much sense. The action scene in question, in which one character (or rather, a poorly constructed dummy meant to represent the character) hangs, for what seems an eternity, from a flying helicopter, is just the sort of thing that low-budget thriller makers need to write out of their scripts. TropiX is a rough-hewn little indie, with a few appealing performances and some clever dialogue helping to compensate for sloppy plotting, one embarrassingly bare-bones action set piece, and the fact that the filmmakers don't have much to say.