Album of the Week (12.04.05)

Artist: Seu Jorge
Album: The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions

I've been waiting for this for a long time. I thought The Life Aquatic was a movie that was going to grow on me with repeated viewings. It hasn't. It isn't a bad movie by any means, I just didn't like it as much as I thought I would. Maybe it's too somber for the sake of being somber. I don't know. But for me, the best parts remain Seu Jorge's acoustic, Portuguese covers of David Bowie songs. There are a handful through the movie, and the original soundtrack featured five versions from within the movie.

Well, now they've released a full album of studio versions of these songs. Thirteen of 'em, plus a song about Team Zissou. Still just Jorge and his guitar. His other album released this year, Cru, has more instrumentation, but more or less the same feel. That album probably fell just shy of my top 50 for the year.

What's so great about these Bowie covers is that they have become their own songs. Some are pretty obviously Bowie songs from the get go, you can hear it in the guitar and the melody. Others, though, are slightly different and it's more difficult to figure out which song it is. Almost everything is in Portuguese, but some of the choruses are sung in English. I can't figure out why Jorge chose to do that. But I ain't complaining.

What I do know is that these songs are 100% enjoyable, regardless of whether or not you like David Bowie.

Personal favorite: "Life On Mars?"