Verdade (Truth) is a crisply produced acoustic album, full of the snap and sparkle we’ve come to expect from the female artists that seem to pour at an unnatural rate out of the small Atlantic island grouping off the coast of West Africa.

Carmen Souza’s selling point is a smooth, sensual voice that fits well in these mellifluous, airy tunes which bear a just a hint of the sodade of Cape Verde — the longing that comes from exile (whether voluntary or otherwise) — and a light percussive touch and brightness that recalls the music of those other lusaphone countries, Brazil and Guinea-Bissau.

Sung in Portuguese with occasional forays into English, the tunes aren’t quite as drenched in blues as the morna of some of her compatriots, and there isn’t the varied, rhythmic batuka rhythm associated with Cape Verde either.

But then, Carmen Souza is carving her own little Afro-European jazz niche here — smooth but not too soft, mellow without being too laid-back, and with a neat approach to song-craft — and as such Verdade is an album that brings its own, slowly-evolving satisfaction. One for the cool summer evenings to come.