Rachael Yamagata HAPPENSTANCE (RCA/Victor)

Rachael Yamagata has an appealing, husky voice that sounds a bit like Fiona Apple’s, with its tendency to swoop and swirl and growl in unexpected places. That voice is the centerpiece of her debut CD, and rightly so. Unfortunately, the disc suffers from uneven songwriting. The opening "Be Be Your Love" rides a playful piano line that’s a solid musical hook, but by the fourth track, "Paper Doll," the songs are becoming harder and harder to distinguish from one another. The obvious hope for a radio single, "Worn Me Down," incorporates chiming guitars into its slick production, but Yamagata’s at her best when she’s more eclectic, as on the klezmer-inflected stomp of "I Want You" and the earnest "Under My Skin" and "Meet Me by the Water," where she shows the promise of singer-songwriter in the Carole King vein.

(Rachael Yamagata performs tonight, September 23, at the Paradise, 967 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston; call 617-562-8800.)