Carly Simon scores with Brazilian album

Carly Simon, "This Kind Of Love" (Hear Music)

After four decades as one of the world's top singer/songwriters, with a truckload of hits that have helped shape pop music, you might think there's little new ground that Carly Simon could plow. And you'd be wrong.

On her first album of original material in eight years, Simon ventures into Brazilian music with a passion, turning out a delicious, fresh pop record that will make you feel as if you're dancing on a beach with sand between your toes and a sultry breeze in your hair.

The title track is a dusky, sensual ode to new, exotic romance, and "Island" is the kind of dreamy theme you would expect from the title, even paying homage to The Beatles' "Sun King" in its intro.

Parenting is also a recurring theme in the album, from "Hold Out Your Heart" and "They Just Want You To Be There," to "Sangre Dolce," a true story about an Argentinian nanny Simon met in New York. She told the woman her baby was beautiful, but the caretaker broke into tears, revealing the child wasn't hers; her own child was thousands of miles away while her mother worked to earn money by taking care of someone else's child.

CHECK THIS TRACK OUT: The words "rap" and "Carly Simon" don't often appear in the same sentence, but the most unusual and memorable track on this album is "People Say A Lot," in which Simon does indeed rap to a sultry beat about the promises people make when they want something, ranging from a a job to a romance. Snoop Dogg she's not, but it still works.