Album: Ceu, Vagarosa, (Six Degrees)

The difficult second album? No sirree! Not for this Brazilian singersongwriter.

Spacious, dub-influenced arrangements featuring spooky keyboards, edgy guitar, and jazzy horns are all laid out in the sun for Céu to breathe airily her bossa nova-style vocals over. This is a breathtakingly confident, effortlessly modern album that honours many different styles of music (reggae, rock, trip-hop, Afrobeat and more) but still comes out sounding like Céu. Unquestionable one of the world albums of the year.