Nonesuch Records releases Caetano Veloso’s album Abraçaço in North America next Tuesday, March 25, 2014. But you don't need to wait till then to hear it: the album is streaming in full via NPR member station WNYC in its Soundcheck program's "Check Ahead" feature. "Caetano Veloso’s new album, Abraçaço, (which means “big hug”) is not some subdued, late-career exercise in nostalgia or retrospection," asserts Soundcheck host John Schaefer. "Though the record calms down a bit as it moves along, it uses the same band as Veloso’s previous album, Cê, which also surprised many listeners with its edgy rock sound." Read more and hear the complete album at soundcheck.wnyc.org.

The album is also streaming in full via KCRW in Los Angeles. "Spending much of the past ten years crafting a trilogy of records that explore the outer reaches of the classic Tropicalia style, Veloso has completed the project with a solid winner that is worth the wait," exclaims KCRW's Eric J. Lawrence. The new album "serves as a nice capper that shows him at his best, and there are few septuagenarians still making music as classy and progressive as Veloso and with as strong and familiar a voice ... [T]he record may be a conclusion to a long-standing project, but it looks to the future, a future that Veloso will surely help shepherd in. For myself, I can't wait." Read more at kcrw.com.

To download two album tracks, "A Bossa Nova É Foda" and "Um Abraçaço," head to the Nonesuch Store, where pre-orders include a download of both songs at checkout and a download of the complete album available starting on release day.

The album, which was released in 2012 in South America and Europe, won a Latin Grammy for Best Singer-Songwriter Album and earned the #1 spot on Rolling Stone Brazil’s Best National Albums of 2012 list. Produced by Pedro Sá and Caetano Veloso’s son Moreno Veloso, Abraçaço is the final installment of a trilogy with the youthful trio he employed on 2007’s Cê and 2009’s zii e zie known as the Banda Cê: Pedro Sá on electric guitar, Ricardo Dias Gomes on bass and Rhodes piano, and Marcelo Callado on drums. “We are people of different generations sharing similar musical and human interests,” Veloso says. A fusion of the traditional Tropicália style and the indie pop of contemporary Rio, Abraçaço includes 11 original songs written by Veloso.

A US tour, which includes a September 21 Hollywood Bowl show with Andrew Bird and Nonesuch label mate Devendra Banhart, will be announced at a later date.