Carwyn Ellis & Rio 18

★★★★ Mas

BANANA & LOUIE. CD/DL/LP

The sound of 2022 comes early: in the form of Welshlanguage Tropicália.

It may be too soon to hymn the benefits of Covid-19, but Carwyn Ellis’s second album of Welsh-language Tropicàlia wasn’t meant to be finished until next year, and these songs are the unexpected results of day-job lockdown and time spent in Cardiff, watching murmurations in the sky. There is a broadening of the palette from 2019’s Joia!, with Cwcan (Cooking) offering lusty, Arturo Sandoval-like trumpet over a Cuban beat, and Golau’r Glas a more direct nod to the 1960s (though inspired by Catalan rumba and a hint of samba). The lyrics may hide messages few will comprehend, but it’s a gorgeous listen, the lush blend of Cymraeg lilt, bossa nova and Brasil ’66esque backing vocals and keyboards dictating the overall mood and drawing a straight line from the docks of Tiger Bay to the beaches of Bahia.