PREFERENCIA NACIONAL

A quite good compilation with a few tunes that could be dismissed and a some that should be included. Overall I can´t complain, for it includes their best album ever, the classic Criaturas Da Noite, in its entirely (albeit not in the same order, of course), much stuff from their second best, Casa Encantada and even a couple of very early b sides. The disposable tunes would be the ones from the weak Mudança de Tempo (1978), where the songs and the style are too different from the rest of the material here and not up to their standards thus far. But, since there is only 3 tracks from that album, I guess it´s alright.

I guess the songs should be in chronological order. That would make it easy for anyone to see their development through the years. The idea of having those two b-sides was a good one, though. They both sound better than on the original form (I guess they were remastered): Tributo Ao Sorriso is from their debut single , Velhas Histórias (1970), and recently they added it to their repertoire when the classic line up came back. Unfortunately nothing from their first two LPs is featured here, and some other early or non album single could be added (as long as they were also remastered). The exclusion of anything they released after 1978 is good news, making it a little more coherent, showing the band´s versatility and skill without having to face some terrible material they recorded during the 80´s.

Conclusion: nice compilation if you want to know about this quintessential brazilian band and don´t want to or can´t afford to listen to all their 70´s stuff. At least it does include all the cuts from their most important CD.