Cibelle - Las Venus Resort Palace Hotel

(Crammed Discs)

Any album containing a cover of Kermit the Frog’s ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green’ is probably not taking itself entirely seriously. This nuts concept album from a Brazilian Tropicalia star is packed with bizarre fun, as musical magpie Cibelle hops from unlikely genre to unlikely genre (James Bond-style epic, ’60s garage rock, loungecore, folk, torch songs and more) in a skewed pastiche of the club singing circuit. When it works, like on the icy Goldfrapp drama of ‘Braid My Hair’ or, yes indeed, that Kermit song rendered as touching, melancholic jazz, it’s irresistible, but that doesn’t quite happen often enough.