Sol y Canto: Cada Día un Regalo

This album would be better if there weren’t so many things in it that make it sound as if Sol y Canto is looking for a gig at the local suburban shopping centre food court. Every time the music seems to be getting some traction and force they kinkade it with a soft saxophone, a lounge-bar piano, or a flute of obtrusive and sappy harmlessness. The songs take their cues from different Latin American musical genres — there is a cover of the Mexican folk-staple “La Llorona”; there are drums and brass — but the Latin brio has been prettified out of them. We’re left with trumpets that murmur placatingly in places where they should be commanding our attention, accompanied by a female singer who is carefully being pleasant when she might be strong. Actually, “pleasant” is probably the best way to sum up the whole thing. Cada Día un Regalo is pleasant.