Cru
Seu Jorge is a voice straight out of thefavelas, Rio de Janeiro's notoriously violent slums where grinding poverty and desperation exist side-by-side with a musical hotbed. Once a homeless street child, he broke into the big time in the 2002 film,City Of God, an unsparingly frank look at life and death in the old neighborhood. Then he was prominently featured on the soundtrack to director Wes Anderson's comedyThe Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, where he put a whole new spin on vintage David Bowie songs. OnCru(Raw), Jorge is in his element, alternately growling or crooning amid acoustic guitars, harp-likecavaquihnosand shrieking, whiningcuicas(friction percussion played with an oil-soaked rag). He remains confrontational, whether delivering a political rant (Eu Sou Favela), expressing disgust over the ubiquity of grotesquely huge breast implants (Mania De Peitão), or applying hip-hop to carnival percussion (Bem Querer). The set is rounded out with covers ofDon't, a Lieber and Stoller tune that was a hit for Elvis Presley, andChatterton, from the lethal pen of the late French singer-composer-agent provocateurSerge Gainsbourg. --Christina Roden