Music: Stereotype A

Cibo Matto inhabits a strip of sonic territory between the hip-hop nation and the Land of the Rising Sun. The Japanese-American performing duo of Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda released a debut CD in 1996, Viva! La Woman, that was an irrepressible delight, fusing hip-hop rhythms with elusively poetic lyrics about culinary cravings. The duo's new album is more about vocal harmonies and hooky melodies. A few of the songs are four-ambulance conceptual disasters. But most of the tracks have a strange sweetness to them, leaving you feeling as though you've bitten into a fruit you can't quite identify.

--C.J.F.