Cold Like Stones

Ecuadorean-born Coca Tenorio has a powerful, plangent voice. Settling in the Highlands of Scotland, she's imbibed that country's liking for songs full of lofty gesture, mist-swirling melodrama and breathy bombast. The title-track, opening the album, has the whooping, heartwrenching yodel of Celtic folk and an emotional appeal as Tenorio insists, over and again, that she never ‘wants to see’ – though what this might be, we are not told. Her accent and enunciation occasionally jar, but when she turns to her native tongue, as on ‘Maria Va’, she sounds much more at home: ex-pat music is rarely as winning as indigenous.
All 12 songs are built around a mix of Andean, South American and Scottish rhythms, with guitar and percussion to the fore. Sadly, the cumulative effect of ten backing musicians tilts somewhat towards the middle-of-the-road and easy-listening, exacerbated by Dire Straits-esque licks. Full of potential, short on style, Cold Like Stones doesn't follow up on the promise of Tenorio's debut.