CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE SHOW HERE.

“I have to warn you,” a punter ahead of me tells her friend, evidently a newcomer to the charms of Emiliana Torrini, “she might be the most adorable thing on earth.” Before such dangerous levels of charm, however, the night opened with softly-spoken Lay Low, a singer-songwriter of Icelandic and Sri Lankan descent who has been a regular touring partner for Torrini and has achieved gold record status in her homeland.

Her songs are mainly an innocent brand of contemporary folk, backed with sympathetic instrumentation and her lilting voice, somewhere between Bic Runga and tonight’s headliner. Closing tune Please Don’t Hate Me (the title being indicative of her songwriting persona) was a local hit, but Lay Low perhaps lack a breakthrough song to kick them up to the next level.

There are no such drawbacks for Emiliana Torrini, whose last record Me And Armini was another confident step forward. Her voice and phrasing may have been a bit sharper last time around, but one plus tonight is that there’s more older material than was the case on her last tour.

Among the set-list is the attractive melody of Summerbreeze and To Be Free, both from her first widely-released record Love in the Time of Science. The sunny Unemployed in Summertime from that album also makes an appearance, and despite Torrini’s apparent misgivings about the naivete of her earlier material, this is as catchy and alluringly laidback as just about anything she’s done.

Fisherman’s Woman is also well represented, the title track an ideal foil for her breath coo of a voice. It goes down easy, with guitar and keys combining to create one of those soundscapes that is warm and inviting, eschewing any hint of aggression or dissonance without approaching easy listening blandness.

The real highlight of that record, and, arguably, tonight’s show, however, is Sunny Road; a sweepingly beautiful torch song which Torrini describes as being about finding the right person at the wrong time. Funnily enough, she manages to introduce the song at the wrong time, having misread the set-list, but she covers her mistake with typical humour.

The crowd, mainly sitting on the dancefloor through Lay Low and fairly sedate through the first half of Torrini’s set, become steadily more involved as momentum noticeably builds through later highlights like the maelstroms of guitar noise in Gun, the achingly pretty Heartstopper and the jaunty statement of philosophy in Big Jumps, dedicated to anyone who has realised “you need to be fucking brave to be happy”.

The gleeful pop of Jungle Drums well and truly wins the crowd over and that devotion is comically apparent when one fan yells out, “Can I give you a hug, Emiliana?” He may not have got what he wanted, but everyone else here did – a performer of real talent and likability, and, yes, one so adorable she almost needs to come with a warning.