''Prize'' is an album by the American musician
Arto Lindsay
Arthur Morgan "Arto" Lindsay (born May 28, 1953) is an American guitarist, singer, record producer and experimental composer. He was a member of the pioneering 1970s no wave group DNA, which featured on the 1978 compilation ''No New York''. In ...
, released in 1999.
Lindsay considered it an attempt at
pop music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...
; it is one of a number of his solo albums inspired by the Brazilian music he heard while growing up in the country.
Production
The album was produced by Lindsay,
Melvin Gibbs
Melvin Gibbs is an American bass guitarist who has appeared on close to 200 albums in diverse genres of music. Among others, Gibbs is known for working in jazz with drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson and guitarist Sonny Sharrock, and in rock music ...
, and
Andres Levin
Andrés Levin is a Venezuelan-born American record producer, bandleader, filmmaker, recording engineer and philanthropist. After several nominations, Levin won a Grammy Award in 2009 for his production of the ''In the Heights'' cast recording. Hi ...
. It was recorded in
Bahia
Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (sta ...
and New York. Five of the songs are sung in
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
.
Vinicius Cantuaria Vinícius is a Portuguese given name from the Roman family name ''Vinicius'', possibly derived from Latin ''vinum'' "wine". Notable people with the name include:
* Lucius Vinicius, Roman consul in 33 BC
* Marcus Vinicius, Roman consul in 19 BC, Rom ...
and Skoota Warner contributed to the album;
Beans
A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes th ...
rapped on "Prefeelings".
[
]
Critical reception
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
stated that the songs float by "on the sinuous current and spring-fed babble of a Brazilian groove bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated by the latest avant-dance fads and electronic developments."Riverfront Times
The ''Riverfront Times'' (''RFT'') is a free progressive weekly newspaper in St. Louis, in the U.S. state of Missouri, that consists of local politics, music, arts, and dining news in the print edition, and daily updates to blogs and photo galler ...
'' wrote: "Sensuous and ripe, exotic and incandescent, ''Prize'' pulsates along rhythms whose headwaters are found in the airy heights of Brazilian ''tropicalia'' jazz."Newsday
''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...
'' thought that "the disc has the soft, understated swing of bossa nova—even Lindsay's occasionally skronk guitar doesn't much disturb its romantic patina."
The ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' noted that "this master alchemist likes to offset his love of lush, tropical music with sharp, modernist accents."[ The '']Orlando Sentinel
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company.
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...
'' determined that "Lindsay's slightly out-of-focus singing has a dreamy gentleness that helps unite the strikingly disparate elements on ''Prize'' ... the bossa nova and samba prove perfectly compatible with elements of avant-electronica and obstreperous art-rock."[ '']The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' listed ''Prize'' as one of the 15 best pop albums of 1999.AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
wrote that "the drum'n'bass textures that lay on the surface of his last album like laminate are more fully integrated this time out: 'Prefeelings' combines a fractured breakbeat with salsa-fied acoustic guitar and saxophones."
Track listing
References
{{Authority control
Arto Lindsay albums
1999 albums
Righteous Babe Records albums