Robin Denselow 

Mayra Andrade: Lovely Difficult review – charming, confident set from Cape Verde’s top singer

Cape Verde's Mayra Andrade brings a host of global influences to bear on her easy-going new album, writes Robin Denselow
  
  

Mayra Andrade
Mayra Andrade: easy-going success. Photograph: Youri Lenquette Photograph: Youri Lenquette/PR

Mayra Andrade is the best-known female singer from Cape Verde, but is clearly fed up with the inevitable comparisons with the late and magnificent Cesaria Evora, and is determined to show that she is not limited to the music of her homeland. So here comes a globally influenced set that was recorded in Brighton with help from the British soul star Omar, and includes songs in four languages. She starts off with a cool, languid song in Cape Verdean Creole, before switching to English, Portuguese and French. The result is a gently easy-going success, in which tempos and rhythms change but the mood remains much the same, as she passes from a gently brooding Krystle Warren song or Hugh Coltman's gently pained 96 Days to the cool and swinging Les Mots D'Amour. It's a confident and often charming set but, as with her previous album, it's lacking in fire or emotion.

 

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