Laço Umbilical

On a trip to Cape Verde last year I found myself being chastised by another journalist for mentioning the search for ‘the new Cesaria Evora.’. Crass marketing talk, snorted my colleague. Well, it may be true that Evora was a magnificent one-off. But there's surely nothing wrong with hoping to unearth another artist who can help put the islands – economically impoverished but musically blessed – back at the centre of the world's attention. A native of São Nicolau, Lucibela has a mellifluous voice that sits somewhere between Evora's stately contralto and the more energised tones of the island's reigning queen, Lura.

Drawing on traditional material and songs by the likes of Mário Lúcio, Jorge Humberto and that rising star Elida Almeida, she delivers a stylish set that does not neglect the melancholy contours of the traditional morna but still tilts more towards the extrovert rhythms of the coladeira. Toy Vieira's arrangements strike the perfect balance between sophistication and soulfulness. Perennial themes of bittersweet romance and the local equivalent of saudade mingle with an exuberant love letter to the islands on ‘Mi E Dode Na Bô Cabo Verde’ and a sexual health warning wrapped up in the sultriest of rhythms on Nhelas Spencer's ‘Profilaxia’.