2 Horas de Sucesso (Ao Vivo)

Two decades into their career as Brazil's most successful sertanejo act to date, Zezé di Camargo & Luciano released their third live album, Duas Horas de Sucesso: Ao Vivo. Recorded live in 2009 at Credicard Hall in São Paulo, Brazil, the album was released as a two-hour DVD and alternatively as a two-volume pair of CDs. Zezé di Camargo & Luciano's first live album, Ao Vivo (2000), was likewise a two-volume pair of CDs, and while there's some overlap between the two albums — for instance, the album opener, "Vem Ficar Comigo," and the festive closer, "Mexe Que é Bom" — Duas Horas de Sucesso: Ao Vivo is primarily filled with the duo's more romantic pop-oriented material from the past decade, such as "Fui Eu" from 2005 and "Pra Mudar a Minha Vida" from 2003. Many old favorites like "É o Amor" are noticeably left out. Duas Horas de Sucesso: Ao Vivo is also distinct from the duo's second live album, Diferente (2006), which featured several collaborations with guest vocalists. One curious commonality with Diferente, however, is the inclusion of "Hey Jude," a Portuguese-language adaptation of the Beatles classic that is sequenced late in the show. Duas Horas de Sucesso: Ao Vivo also includes a mostly instrumental cover of the Beatles' "Something" as an overture to the singalong-heavy "Hey Jude." The sound quality of Duas Horas de Sucesso: Ao Vivo is excellent, with crowd noise kept to a minimum, and the brothers give a fine performance with the backing of a full band, horn section and all. The DVD is the preferable medium for enjoying the show, for it's somewhat annoying that the CD edition is split into two different albums, the 11-track Duas Horas de Sucesso: Ao Vivo, Vol. 1 and the 12-track Duas Horas de Sucesso: Ao Vivo, Vol. 2, when they could easily have been combined into a double-disc package.