Nacarile

‘I was confused and lost, but at the same time, songs kept coming out of me. I kept writing,’ says iLe about her latest offering. This statement says a lot, as whereas her previous, Almadura, was a love letter and political response to turmoil in her homeland of Puerto Rico, with a musical DNA of bomba and plena, this one is a mixed bag; there's creativity and great songs, but the end result is ultimately confused.

It starts off with an eerie theremin that develops into a beautiful collage of voices. The detached Céu-esque rhythm of the following ‘Ningún Lugar’ continues a similar ambience, but then out of nowhere comes the hyper vocals of Argentina's latest freestyle sensation, Trueno, who steamrollers the track. It's perhaps the most jarring moment, but it's not alone. This is an album that can't decide whether to go for bouncy, guitar-strumming melodies or spectral vocal-led rhythms. That said, the classic bolero sound captured on ‘Traguito’, a collaboration with Mon Laferte, is spell-binding, and ‘En Cantos’, in which iLe shares vocal duties with Natalia Lafourcade, does right by letting their voices do the talking, but how they fit into the album's over-riding fabric is anyone's guess.