Conceived at a time of political tension in dictatorial Brazil, its title comes from the Portuguese term meaning "brute force" and has been interpreted ironically due to the music's relatively relaxed style.

Its largely unrehearsed, nighttime recording session found the singer improvising with Trio Mocotó's groove-oriented accompaniment while experimenting with unconventional rhythmic arrangements, musical techniques, and elements of soul, funk, and rock.

A commercial and critical success, Fôrça Bruta established Ben as a leading artist in Brazil's Tropicália movement and pioneered a unique sound later known as samba rock.

Renowned among collectors and musicians but relatively rare outside of its country of origin, the album was released for the first time in the United States in 2007 by the specialty label Dusty Groove America, attracting further critical recognition.

[6] Greg Caz, a disc jockey specializing in Brazilian music, recognizes this quality as not only melancholic but mysterious and departing from the carefree sensibility that had been the singer's trademark.

[1] This is demonstrated in the lyrics, melodies, arrangements, and Ben's "devilish" guitar figures, with "Oba, Lá Vem Ela" and "Domênica Domingava" cited by Sanches as examples.

[6] Ben's guitar playing, more developed and prominently featured on this album, leads music journalist Jacob McKean to find the sound altogether subtler and "stripped down" when compared to his previous records, while colored by a "somewhat crunchy, folksy tone" established in the opening songs "Oba, Lá Vem Ela" and "Zé Canjica".

[15] They also experiment with unconventional percussive arrangements, particularly on the cuíca-driven "O Telefone Tocou Novamente" and "Zé Canjica" (with its drum cadence), resulting in rhythmic contrasts between Trio Mocotó and Ben's instruments.

[9] According to Peter Margasak, Ben can be heard "reinforcing the rhythmic agility of his songs with pin-point phrasing, surprising intervallic leaps, and a plaintive kind of moan".

[21] In "Apareceu Aparecida" – which employs the "rolling stone" idiom – the narrator rediscovers the euphoric joy of living after his beloved has accepted him again; this leads Sanches to conclude that Ben sings of hedonism in a concentrated state.

[24] In Caz's opinion, the lyrics on Fôrça Bruta reveal deeper concerns than were found in the singer's previous recordings, shown most notably by "Charles Jr.", in which Ben explores his identity as an artist and as a black man.

[1] It was received favorably in Veja magazine, whose reviewer found it impressively rhythmic, full of musical surprises and suspense, and comparable to a comic book in the way familiar fantasies and characters are reformulated in strange yet delightful directions.

[1] Fôrça Bruta's fusion of Trio Mocotó's groove and Ben's more rockish guitar proved to be a distinctive feature of what critics and musicians later called samba rock.

[14] Dusty Groove asked Chicago Reader critic Peter Margasak to write liner notes for the release, but he declined, citing in part the lack of American literature available on Ben.

[5] A reviewer for The Boston Globe says Ben's masterful performance of this music – "a fusion of bright samba and mellow soul" – still sounds original and essential more than 30 years after its recording.

[33] In Impose magazine, Jacob McKean highlights the two opening tracks, finding "Zé Canjica" particularly attractive, and believes that "Apareceu Aparecida" features the album's most appealing hook.

[34] Less enthusiastic about the album is Stylus Magazine's Mike Powell, who writes that it has "a kind of aesthetic gentility" that characterizes most Brazilian music and polarizes its listeners as a consequence.

Powell adds that, while his cavil may be silly, Fôrça Bruta remains "demure samba-rock laced with sliding strings, an agreeable, samey atmosphere, no strife on the horizon", assigning it a letter grade of "B-minus".

But in his appraisal in The Wire, he judges the album to be "something of a minor masterpiece of textural contrast" and "a stone cold classic of Brazilian modernism", representative of the country's flair for "weaving beguiling syncretic music from practically any cloth".

[36] Having discovered Ben's music in 2009, indie rock musician Andrew Bird writes in a guest column for Time that Fôrça Bruta is a classic of "raw and soulful Tropicália".