Oceanos y Lunas

Album Review

In an example of the impact of world politics on culture, the parents of singer Elizabeth Ayoub emigrated from Lebanon before that country's civil war, settling in Venezuela before her birth. Given that heritage, her music, not surprisingly, mixes Arabic and Latin styles, and she sings it in Arabic and Spanish, when she's not venturing into English or French. In the arrangements, the guitars mix with ouds, but no matter what the instrumentation, the approach is gentle and folkish, and as a songwriter Ayoub (as revealed in the translations of her lyrics in the CD booklet) sticks to generalized longings for romantic love. Occasionally, the music veers toward American country-folk, notably in "Je T'Attends," which, with its repeated use of the phrase "don't know why" (sung in English) suggests Norah Jones, and "Volver." But American country singers don't usually sing their choruses in French followed by the wordless expression "ya leyli." Ayoub is a poster child for international understanding, and her music should have pop appeal across cultures.