Close your eyes for a moment and picture a paradise where house, reggae, rock, r&b and soul all meet on a single Caribbean disco plane. Now open them. You hear that? That intoxicating tropical groove you hear means you’ve just stepped into Anané’s World.

With Anané, there’s no such thing as one-dimensionality. The sultry songstress boils many different flavors into a single pot, serving up a dish of delicious grooves and diverse melodies. A cover of Yoko Ono’s “Walking on Thin Ice,” the CD’s introductory track, stands as the appetizer, inducing a bit of Saturday Night Fever while keeping your mouth watering for more. “Rock the Cradle” is a mouthful of breezy melodies and reggae bliss, and after tantalizing us with a taste of the islands, Anané serves listeners a platter straight from the Côte d’Azur with songs like “Terra Longe” and “Bem Ma Mi.”

Perhaps one of the most electrifying moments of Anané’s World occurs when reggaeton kings Mr. Vegas and Tony Touch come into the picture for “Shake It.” With pulsating synths and exotic syncopated rhythms, the reggaeton jam leads us to the album’s climactic latin crescendo, “One Dream.” Crashing waves and laughing children set the scene for the rousing number that inspires listeners to chase after their imaginings. “One day, one dream, one hope, one world,” Anané sings, foreboding a burst of big band salsa-meets-timba fusion and wrapping up the melodious multi-course meal with a bang.

Produced by her Grammy award-winning husband, Louie Vega, and featuring an unexpected collaboration with fashion designer Roberto Cavalli for a remake of Donna Summer’s “Love to Love You Baby,” Anané’s vivacious sophomore venture gracefully dodges the notorious “slump” by immersing listeners in her world of pulsating earthy glamour through a colorful buffet of 15 groove-inducing tracks. Your ears have never tasted anything quite like this before. Bon Appétit.

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