This came out in 2003 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
If music be the food of love, there’s no reason to go hungry at this time of year. As always, there are plenty of new Valentine’s Day albums on the racks to help you get something cooking at your own romantic feast this weekend. Here’s one of them. Now go get ’em, tiger.
COME-ONS: OK, so maybe you can’t jet your sweetie down to Rio for Valentine’s Day. As a consolation prize, try this compilation of sexy samba classics from the likes of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao and Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz.
TURN-ONS: The supple sensuality of these lightly jazzy tropical rhythms is just right for dancing. And you know what that leads to.
TURN-OFFS: Jobim wrote The Girl From Ipanema, but an album without Getz and Gilberto’s definitive version just feels incomplete.
GOES WITH: Umbrella drinks, tanning beds, wicker furniture, sand boxes, conga drums, paella, papayas, mangoes.
