Alice Caymmi is the debut album by Brazilian artist of same name, released in 2012, produced by Flávio Mendes, with Caymmi being the art director herself. She described the album as follows: "The album has an aquatic environment, a reference to my grandfather, to the mythic sea he created. But I like the more obscure things. I brought the more tragic side of his songs, the night sea, darker. Not that I feel I am the avant-guarde-ist, but I want out of the comfort zone. I could have made the album one would expect from the young granddaughter of Caymmi. But there would be no album, it wouldn't be so emotional. For this album, I wanted the noise, the noise language. I don't think I made it, because the songs didn't have this head. But I tried to bring them to this tragic, noisy environment of sea, of night". Originally, the album would be entirely performed by Alice alone and would feature seven tracks. However, producer Flávio Mendes convinced her to enlarge the track list and invite more musicians. Some of the lyrics were composed during her adolescence. There are two covers in the album, "Sargaço Mar" and "Unravel". The first was composed by her grandfather. she describes it as "a song that is independent of harmony, just her melody already shows what it is. I then tried to acclimatize it in a scenic way. If I had it my way, it would open the album, my career, everything". "Unravel" was originally performed by Icelandic singer Björk – about this version, the European singer supposedly said in her website that "there's no way of doing it better than that", making Alice cry for her acknowledgment.
Critical reception
Writing in his blog Notas Musicais, reviewer Mauro Ferreira praised the album and said Alice "reveals herself as an artist that has her own identity", despite the covers and the surname. Cleber Facchi, from Miojo Indie, saw similarities between Alice and her grandfather would be inspired by the sea to compose, but he also identified an own light in the singer, concluding that "even without knowing about the future, Caymmi sails confidently, fearless of what she might encounter ahead."
