It's possible to hear strains of other chanteuses such as Tori Amos, Julee Cruise, et al throughout the nine tracks on this album. However, such comparisons scratch the surface, drawing more from Lachica's powerful and dramatic vocals. However, the heart and soul of Lachica's music draws from 4AD's glory days, when bands like The Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, and This Mortal Coil dominated the ethereal landscape, releasing album after album of atmosphere, drama, and melancholia. www.opuszine.com

Lachica's vocal ramifications will remind you of Liz Fraser, Lisa Gerrard, even a certain tone Jeff Buckley used now and again... a less humorous Jane Siberry, maybe, a less technocentric, less histrionic, but sweeter and indier Kate Bush... Marco Sangiacomo

Listening to the opening track of "Sirens" on Elaine Lachica's debut CD 9, I was distinctly reminded of a release that came out nearly 10 years ago. Mind you, that isn't a bad thing. "Sirens" is an ethereal, spooky track along the lines of the work that the group Miranda Sex Garden were doing in their heyday. Lachcica multitracks her high vocals over subtle, reverbed guitar and twinkling chimes, and the effect is eerie and rather lovely at the same time. -- www/almostcool.org

9 paints a languid landscape, over which Lachica's finely nuanced voice floats and flutters. Lachica's influences range from the Cocteau Twins and Tori Amos to Cassandra Wilson and Bach -- www/blah3.com

Elaine’s first album will take you off balance the first time you hear it. It is an eclectic mixing of beautiful melodies… and noise. I almost get a Flying Saucer Attack feel from some of the tracks. But, instead of having brash, harsh noises in her songs, Elaine uses noise to create another layer in the melody. She makes the noise easier to digest. -- www.indieworkshop.com

Appropriately titled "9," the nine-song CD sounds as if it were composed entirely while floating in space -- miles from anywhere but totally and completely in the moment. www.indie-music.com