Emiliana Torrini

Somewhere between the sparse simplicity of early Jewel, the saucy hippie bounce of Goldfrapp and the quirky assertiveness of Joanna Newsom and fellow Icelander Bjork lies the charming pop sensibility of Emiliana Torrini. Like any of those savvy women, the chanteuse is careful to spotlight her most flattering qualities. Carrying her crystal-clear timbre from breathy whispers to rising whirrs, Torrini reveals she can be sweetly melancholic ("Birds," "Bleeder"), dryly sarcastic ("Ha Ha"), openly seductive ("Gun") and darkly intimate ("Me and Armini" and "Dead Duck"), all in under an hour.