Sweet Soubrette plays the ukulele, but she's no novelty act; this sultry songwriter sings about love (mainly the doomed kind) with wit, depth, and charm. With a sound that brings to mind artists like Regina Spektor and the Magnetic Fields, her songs are wickedly captivating—playful, tender, and wry.

Sweet Soubrette is New York native Ellia Bisker, whose musical influences range from early popular song, musical theatre, and blues, to folk icons like Leonard Cohen, to contemporary artists like PJ Harvey, Liz Phair, and Fiona Apple. Some of her songs evoke alt-folk artists like Joanna Newsom, Cat Power, and Feist; others are reminiscent of classic Tin Pan Alley numbers. What they all share is a single sensibility: as her song “Suckerpunch” asserts, “there's nothing more romantic than a doomed romance.”

Following a year performing in New York's independent music scene, including appearances at Galapagos Art Space, Mo Pitkin's, and Sound Fix, in January 2008 Sweet Soubrette will release her debut album, Siren Song (MH Records), produced by Tim Cohan, frontman of indie-pop group Tryst. Bust Magazine recently described Sweet Soubrette as “Brooklyn's fishnet-clad femme fatale,” and it can't be denied that this 12-track CD is an enticement into deep waters.

Each track on Siren Song is unique: in “Lucky to Be Here,” loops and beats provide a heartbeat for a cautious avowal of love; in “Homewrecker,” a stirring string arrangement expresses the lyrics' underlying tension; “This Little Song” is an unadorned live recording of a duet with Cohan that is as simple as it is heartfelt. On the album's title track, a mermaid sings to beguile a shipwrecked sailor, and shimmering harmonies evoke a sea of beckoning mermaids. The album itself is a similarly irresistible invitation into a new world.