Bringing Stacey Kent’s love for Brazilian music sharply into focus, The Changing Lights finds the singer’s storytelling gifts reaching ever-greater heights. Singing in English, Portuguese and French, the 13-track collection judiciously mixes Brazilian classics with striking originals. Of the former, the singer’s perfect diction comes to the fore in Tom Jobim/Newton Mendonca’s ‘One Note Samba’, while the latter include three fabulous new songs from the team of Kazuo Ishiguro and Jim Tomlinson. With its vivid imagery and aching nostalgia, ‘The Summer We Crossed Europe In The Rain’ is especially fine. Other highlights include Tomlinson’s collaboration with the Portuguese poet Antonio Ladeira, ‘Mais Uma Vez’, which already sounds canonic, and the breezy waltz ‘The Face I Love’. The album closes with a delicious nod back in the direction of Kent’s all-French album, Raconte-Moi, in the form of ‘Chanson Légère’. Recorded at Curtis Schwartz Studios in Sussex, the album sounds gorgeous too.