Strange one this. Difficult to pin it down exactly. Here we have a dose of luscious lounge, gently unfolding latin-beats, prickly blues-guitar and a delicate salsa spiciness. Featuring cameos and contributions from guitarists and writers like Ryan Scott, trumpet-man Kevin Louis, bas-player Andy Cotton, accordionist Nico Davis, percussionist David Martinez, Alex Huberty, David Brandt, the West Coast’s Luz Fleming (pronounced ‘Loose’) dishes up an unsually soft-focus menagerie of latin, jazz and roots reggae; part-sampled, part-live, part-programmed, part-played. My only gripe is that it’s perhaps too slick, too consummate and waaaaaay too coastal to really hit the spot with the fashionably eclectic youth market who are more likely to be turned on by the cheeky cartoonery of folks like Lily Allen, that they are her source material.
Best of the bunch? ‘La Subienda’. Smoochy horns and a sultry dub kick.
More dirt, less polish and she jobs as good as done.