In this instant digital world, it's rare for a buzz about someone to trickle around the world at a snail's pace any more. And that's where Siren Songs by Gretchen Lieberum comes into play.

Americans have known about Gretchen Lieberum for some time now, and Siren Songs has been available to buy there for a couple of years. But, like skateboards and childhood obesity, Siren Songs has taken its time to cross the moment. And not a moment too soon, either, because listening to Siren Songs by Gretchen Lieberum is like listening to slowly melting chocolate.

Trip Hop hasn't always been the devil's music, you know. Sure, Massive Attack have long since vanished up their own bottoms and the whole scene seems so embarrassed by the way that it only exists to soundtrack Channel Four documentaries about modern architecture that it now prefers the term 'downtempo', but if anyone can save Trip Hop it's Gretchen Lieberum.

Gretchen Lieberum, a singer-songwriter from LA, has stood on the peripheries of the big-time over the last decade and watched as her similarly drowsy contemporaries like Norah Jones shifted units by the lorryload. Siren Songs came about as a reaction to the death of one of Gretchen Lieberum's close friends, and that isn't really a surprise – the album drips with a quiet, restrained grief.

Not that Siren Songs is a miserable listen, though – thanks to the combination of its airy, spacious, almost underwater production and Gretchen's intimate, jazz-inflected voice, Siren Songs draws you in, comforting you a little more with each song. You know the feeling you get when there's a thunderstorm outside and you're safe and warm and falling asleep at home? That's Siren Songs exactly.

Whether it's the midsummer stillness of Avila, the eerie creep of You Closer or the cover of Do You Realize by The Flaming Lips, Siren Songs by Gretchen Lieberum is never anything less than utterly captivating. The last of these, in particular, is astonishing – proving what a devastating song Do You Realize can be in the hands of someone who can actually sing.

True, at times Siren Songs can slightly resemble those awful chill-out compilations that were briefly popular five years ago, and the fact that it's taken two years to get a UK release suggests that Siren Songs probably isn't going to catapult Gretchen Lieberum into the big time; but instead, treat it as the hidden gem that it undoubtedly is.