"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
Review by John Bush
The first major-label release of Mutantes material was this 1999 compilation, put together by longtime Brazilian fan David Byrne through his Luaka Bop label. Including tracks from the band's late-'60s and early-'70s LPs (available separately through Omplatten), Everything Is Possible is a solid collection that only includes 14 tracks but does spotlight Mutantes' tremendous diversity. From the birth of tropicalia on their first album from 1968 (wildly experimental pop songs like "Panis Et Circenses" and "Bat Macumba") plus their later, more straight-ahead incarnations, the album gives beginners a solid place to start. The inclusion of both versions of the rather tiresome Janis Joplin retread "Baby" is a bit regrettable, but all around, Everything Is Possible gets it right better than could be hoped from a domestic compilation.
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