have enjoyed Linstead's Latin inspired feel good music for years and own all of his CD's. Cafe Tropical contains some of his best upbeat songs and his guitar playing is, as always, very good. Several of the catchy melodies are hard to get out of your head. However, the sound/recording quality of 6 of the 11 tracks is a bit muddy, thin, and compressed; not anywhere the great quality of the clean/open/highly detailed sound of the cuts on Mediterranea. An audiophile or good mid-fi sound system clearly reveals these recording flaws. Also, the trumpet tracks sound like of a synthesizer and not from a well played trumpet. The only explanation that I can think of, for these shortcomings, is that Linstead may have recorded the songs several years ago using lesser quality equipment. Bottom line: 5 stars for song writing/guitar playing and 3 stars for recording quality. George M -- Phx, AZ