What an ironic name: "Green Cape." Few of the 10 islands that make up the arid, rocky archipelago of CapeVerde have any green on them. A T-shirt sold there says, As cobras 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 sodade an untranslatable word that means a land of melancholy nostalgia.

The runaway 1992 success of Cesaria Evora (from Sao Vicente) gave Cape Verdean music an international profile. Now here are three other releases from that archipelago:

The Creole language in which Cape Verdeans have sung since at least the 17th century may be hard even for visiting Portuguese to understand. So I wish there were translations in the booklet to Maria de Barms' Danca Ma Mi (Narada). But that's my only complaint. Her biography is intriguing: She was born in Dakar, Senegal to Cape Verdean 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 ballads 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.

Teh'- Alhinho'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 Cape Verdean traditions of the morna, the sad ballad, it knows how to dance. The lyrics express the complex coexistence of drought and poverty with love and beauty, imbued with the sodade of Alhinho's volcanic homeland, or, as she puts it, "the pain in the heart of one who loves."

Lura looks like a high-gloss glamour babe, but Di Korpu Ku Ahna (Escondida) has roots and soul. She grew up in Lisbon, but her father was from Santiago, the most -influenced island of Cape Verde. The African connection is apparent on "Vazulina," a lively song about hair straightening that uses Senegalese talking drum. (Its infectious refrain repeats, "with combs of hot iron, with Vaseline.") You get value for your 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