Few of 10 islands that make up the arid, rocky archipelago of Cabo-Verde have any green of them. A T-shirt sold there says. As cabras nos ensinaram a comer pedras the goats taught us to eat stones. The islands are more than 300 miles off the west coast of Africa, surrounded by the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean. And the music there is permeated by sodadi untranslatable word that means a kind of melancholy nostalgia.

The runway 1992 success of Cisária Évora (from São Vicente) give Caboverdian music international profile. Now here are three other releases from that archipelago:

The Creole language in which Caboverdians have sung since at least the 17th century maybe hard even for visiting Portuguese to understand. So I wish there were transitions in the booklet to Maria de Barros' Dança Ma Mi (Narada). But that was my only complaint. Her biography is intriguing: She was born in Dakar, Senegal to Caboverdian parents and raised in Mauritania and in Providence, Rhode Island. Her voice is like a kiss, and the elegant production shows it off to its best advantage, alternating between balladas and dance tunes. I wish I knew exactly what she was telling us well, okay, "Amor Luz" is "Love Light" but the lush, sensual music makes a good case on its own.

Tété Alhinmho's Voz (Times Square) does have translated lyrics in the booklet. This is a good thing, because the poetry, much of it by her, is worth lingering over. Alhinho spent five years in the 1980s as a student in Cuba, and the imprint of that island's passionate, intellectual nueva trova movement on her is evident. Even when the music is firmly anchored in the Caboverdian traditions of the morna, the sad ballada, it knows how to dance. The lyrics express the complex coexistence of drought and poverty with love

Lura looks like a high-gloss glamour babe, but Di Korpu Ku Alma (Escondida) has roots and soul. She grew up in Lisbon, but her father is from Santiago, the most African-influenced island of Cabo-Verde. The African connection is apparent on "Vazulina," a lively song about hair straightening that uses a Senegalese talking drum.

(Its infections refrain repeats, "with combs of hot iron, with Vaseline.") You get value for you money these days: The CD package includes a bonus DVD with a 45-minute live concert video that shows you the kid can really sing. Sample tracks at www.rockpaperscissors.biz

NED SUBLETTE