*** ANOUSHKA

(AP)

This self-released debut conjures up some smoky nightclub lounge where the lights are dim enough to make everyone look pretty good, the torch songs are witty and sad, and the singer sounds as if she'd lived through those hard times and good times herself. Anoushka is a local Berklee grad who's put together an impressive collection of tunes here in a retro, jazzy pop style reminiscent of Rickie Lee Jones or Phoebe Snow. Her affecting songs exert a seductive charm, leaving a vivid impression of their cast of searching characters: barflies with the cocaine blues, slumming covergirls, lost runaways, lovelorn 12-step diehards. "This is a story about Charlie -- Charlie's a guy I used to know," Anoushka murmurs casually to introduce a lilting tale about a wise guy whose luck has finally run out. "Four a.m. she's reeling home in leather laced with gin," she sings in the lovely "Call Daphne," her knowing voice altogether sympathetic to the lot of another partygoer unsteadily toeing the thin line between fun and the inevitable hangover.

-- Ivan Kreilkamp