Os Mutantes - World Psychedelic Classics 1: Everything Is Possible, The Best of Os Mutantes LP

Label: Luaka Bop

"You must take a look at the new land," Os Mutantes singer Rita Lee softly proclaims on Everything Is Possible!'s English-language rewrite of Caetano Veloso's "Baby." The Brazilian psychedelic-rock pioneers were addressing a hoped-for American-British audience, but they could also have been singing to their own country's political establishment, which didn't take kindly to the Tropicalia era's fusion of Beatles and Hendrix influences with elements of bossa nova and samba. The result continues to reverberate more than three decades later in the work of Beck, Stereolab, and Cibo Matto, not to mention on late-'90s reissues such as this. Full of beauty, self-mocking good humor, and a command of varied styles that Lennon and McCartney would've envied, this enticing music is every bit as fresh as it must've sounded to South American swingers back in the day. --Rickey Wright