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A Fine Frenzy, "One Cell in the Sea" (Virgin Records/Capitol Music Group)

Alison Sudol, aka A Fine Frenzy, seems wise beyond her years, judging by her debut album. The 22-year-old pianist is a Los Angeles singer/songwriter and, by extension, a storyteller.

The 14 (mostly) nautically themed tunes speak of universal truths most of us ignore. And she's a keen observer of what most of us would consider the mundane. On the sexy opener "Come On, Come Out," she sings: "Watching the sky, you're watching a painting/Coming to life, shifting and shaping."

The music is mostly piano-driven pop rock with strings, but she commands a vocal range that's sexy, soulful and seductive, often all in the same song ("Whisper"). She typically doesn't get louder than one would at a cross-table conversation, and she has a conspiratorial tone ("You Picked Me").

The mood turns especially melancholy and ethereal when Sudol contemplates love:

Unrequited love on "Almost Lover": "You sang me Spanish lullabies/the sweetest sadness in your eyes. . . . Goodbye, my almost lover/goodbye, my hopeless dream."

Lost love's fragile strength on "Think of You": "You rest your bones somewhere far from my own/yeah, but you still pull me home."

Discovery of new love on "Lifesize": "Larger than lifesize we become/great in the eyes of someone."

Vulnerability of new love on "Near to You": "I am healing but it's taking so long/'cause though he's gone, and you are wonderful/it's hard to move on/yet, I'm better near to you."

A Fine Frenzy fills the opening slot for Rufus Wainwright at 7 p.m. Aug. 6 at the Paolo Soleri Amphitheater, 1501 Cerrillos Road, in Santa Fe. Sean Lennon is a guest for the all-ages show. $29 at the Lensic Box Office, 211 W. San Francisco St., in Santa Fe, Tickets Santa Fe or at the door. (505) 988-1234.

St. Vincent, "Marry Me" (Beggars Banquet Records)

St. Vincent is the nom de musique of Dallas singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark. She plays guitar in the Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens' touring band, and has performed in avant-garde composer Glenn Branca's 100 Guitar Orchestra.

All of that experience has seeped into her debut disc of eccentric guitar pop-rock with choirs, strings and electronics. And lyrically, it's just surreal.

"Now, Now" is a disjointed, multilayered sound collage with a dissonant coda. Clark seems to harmonize with herself in three- and four-part harmonies, equally haunting and catchy. It opens: "I'm not your mother's favorite dog/I'm not the carpet you walk on/I'm not one small atomic bomb/I'm not anything at all."

It just gets weirder from then on.

On the jazzy "Jesus Saves, I Spend" she laments: "While Jesus is saving I'm spending all my days in backgrounds and landscapes with the languages of saints."

"Your Lips Are Red" is piano/choir-driven bop with strings playing at cross-purposes, while "Paris Is Burning" is a show tune from off-off-Broadway or even maybe off-off-this-planet. The otherworldly Bjork-ish "Landmines" is hyperballadlike, psychedelic ephemera.

Clark also seems to have a thing for torch songs — the quirkily weird "Marry Me," "All My Stars Aligned" and closer "What Me Worry?" where she intones: "I'm always amused and amusing you."

After listening to this 23-year-old's utterly fascinating, intriguing and beguiling album, the feeling's mutual.

St. Vincent hits the Launchpad, 618 Central S.W., on Aug. 9. I Is for Ida shares the stage at 9 p.m. $8. 21 and over. 764-8887.