The daughter of Guatemalan and Venezuelan parents, Kaina Castillo was raised on the music of Motown, salsa stars like Oscar D'León and guaracha queen Celia Cruz. You can hear all those influences on her second album, It Was a Home, but also a love of '90s and 2000s R&B and even the bright and shiny Disney pop of her childhood. "Casita" is a marvel, referencing both D'León and The Cheetah Girls, with trumpet underscoring the lyrical longing (in Spanish and English) for cozy nights of the past. Now that she's all grown up, "I miss sharing space in my home, staying up way too late talking shit and laughing—I miss sharing my mother's cooking with friends and family," the native of Chicago's Irving Park neighborhood has said. Her velvety voice wraps you right up on songs like "It Was a Home," a less romantic form of nostalgia ("I used to live in a little room in a little house with a crooked view/ I used to walk ... up the broken stairs") that conjures up the magic of a Stevie Wonder ballad. It's a prelude to Kaina's actual cover of a Wonder song, the incredibly tender "Come Back as a Flower" (co-written and sung by his former wife Syreeta Wright on his Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants album). With its almost hymn-like feel and splash of funky keys, the tribute faithfully captures the purity and innocence of the original. On "In My Mind," the acoustic guitar and hand drums are elegantly restrained so that the vocals really feel like you're eavesdropping on Kaina's internal voice as she wavers between self-doubt and reassurance: "It's not that I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel/ But I might not make it there tonight." "Anybody Can Be in Love" adds liquid fire guitar and the arrhythmia of a heart-murmur drum beat to Luther Vandross-style R&B. Sassy bop "Apple" recalls En Vogue, and "Friend of Mine" is Broadway dramatic, the music twice dropping almost all the way out. There's a great duet, "Blue," with Helado Negro, and a mind-blowing collaboration, "Ultraviolet," with Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein. A mash-up of red-hot rock guitars and free-form soul, it captures the wow factor of '90s girl-group R&B. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz