Bossa Cubana
"Cuban doo-wop" is good shorthand for the sound of this enormously appealing quintet. ButBossa Cubana, an exhumation of 17 tracks by '60s stars Los Zafiros, is even more unpredictable than that phrase would leave you to believe. The music here carries echoes of everything fromBeny More(sans horn section) toLittle Anthony and the Imperials, while often sounding like a secret influence onChris Isaak. Los Zafiros are at their most affecting when wailing and harmonizing over slow-dance tempos; listen to their Spanish translation of "My Prayer" ("Mi Oracion"), and you'll never hear thePlattersquite the same way again.--Rickey Wright