Ilha d’Melodia

Ceuzany used to front Cordas do Sol, whose album Lume d’Lenha was apparently bought by one in ten Cape Verdeans. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this, her second solo effort, should be similarly designed to appeal to all and offend few. In fact it's so easy on the ear that it begins to grate after a while. Yes, the Senegal-born singer has a voice like a fresh summer breeze; yes, her band produce delightful foot-tapping grooves from a gently plucked cavaquinho (a Portuguese ukulele) and acoustic guitar, piano and drums. But even when Ceuzany ventures into vaguely hip-hop territory in a duet with rapper Kiddye Bonz on ‘Cabo Verde La Fora’, the rapping itself is polite and the arrangement remains innocuously agreeable, with things quickly getting back on track with a chorus full of forlorn yearning in the traditional Cape Verdean manner.

Ultimately, there's nothing wrong with Ilha d’Melodia; it's a lovely, sun-filled, bouncy thing when it's not being a lovely, melancholic, lovelorn thing. But there's just not one single moment of dissonance or one longed-for rough edge. No doubt it too will end up being owned by a sizable percentage of her fellow countrymen, so good luck to her.