“MELE HO‘OLINO”

Kahulanui (Kahulanui LLC)

Kahulanui released its long-awaited second album as 2017 was ending. It’s a fresh assortment of Hawaiian and hapa haole songs that spans two centuries. It’s also an excellent sequel to their Grammy-finalist debut album, “Hula Ku‘e,” of 2012.

The core quartet and their integral horn section specialize in playing island classics by Alvin Kaleolani Isaacs, Alfred Alohikea, John Kameaaloha Almeida and Randy Oness arranged in the big-band style popular in the 1930s and 1940s. They also explore how mainland pop hits of similar vintage — “Fly Me to the Moon” and “Almost Like Being in Love,” to name two — sound when played as hapa haole swing.

For serious “oldies” fans there’s “Eating of the Poi,” writer unknown, which dates from the late 1880s, and “On the Beach at Waikiki,” which was written by G.H. Stover and Henry Kailimai in 1915 and became an instant hit when it was performed that year at the Panama-Pacific Exhibition.

The group breaks format with the final song when the core quartet dispenses with the horn section for a back-porch-style tribute to Keola Beamer and Charles E. King.

Visit kahulanui.com.

“…KU‘UPAU”

Lito Arkangel (Self-published)

Hawaii island artist Lito Arkangel, a lecturer at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, has released a second full-length album, and it’s a beautifully crafted clone of his first. Once again he’s singing all the vocal parts while accompanying himself on ukulele and percussion. Dwight Tokumoto (steel guitar) and Elmer “Sonny” Lim Jr. (acoustic guitar and acoustic bass guitar) return for a second stint as his studio sidemen. Grammy Award-winning record producer Charles Michael Brotman adds a second guitar to the project.

And once again, Arkangel’s choice of songs extends from the mid-19th century to modern times. The oldest are “Ku‘u Ipo i ka He‘e Pu‘a One,” by Princess Likelike, and “He Mele Lahue Hawai‘i,” written by then-Princess Lili‘uokalani in 1866 as the original national anthem of Hawaii. The newest are “Kaleohano,” by Louis Moon Kauakahi, and “Aloha i ke Kai Uli,” co-written by Arkangel and Lehua Veincent.

Arkangel opens with a beautiful arrangement of “E Ku‘u Morning Dew” that spotlights his falsetto harmonies. He uses his falsetto voice on most of the songs that follow but drops to his lower register for “He Mele Lahui Hawai‘i.”

The Hawaiian lyrics and their English translations are available at litoarkangel.com.

(Note: Arkangel performs a set of traditional and contemporary Hawaiian classics at Hawaii Public Radio’s Atherton Studio at 7:30 p.m. Saturday; get tickets, $15-$25, at hprtickets.org or by calling 955-8821.)