These are not the easiest of times to be cheery, even optimistic.

So whatever Sarah Slean's taking, I want some.

The elfin entertainer, who brings her romantically charged Night Bugs to Oliver's at Carleton on Tuesday, has an amazing rose-coloured view of current global events, enough to inspire some hope for humanity.

"A good time to be a romantic, these are violent, testing times," the ethereal singer says over the phone from her Toronto home.

FIRST MAJOR RELEASE

"You have to be a die hard romantic to get through these days," she laughs. "I don't know how a logical person gets through the day."

Well, more than a few are getting through by listening to Night Bugs, her first major label release that's creating buzz for Slean with juicy comparisons to Tori Amos and Kate Bush.

Produced by Hawksley Workman, Night Bugs is a critical rave, winning her a Juno nod for best new artist. It's a funny, operatic fantasy dream in which Slean takes on the role of a Left Bank artist playing a heartbroken piano in a Berlin cabaret.

It seems to be a strange destiny for the former classical music student who hopes to be the next Brahms.

"I love doing concerts with strings. I have a symphony in my bowels," she says seriously.

A minute later she finally gets it and laughs.

But her immediate plans are less flighty. Well as much as Slean's capable. She's writing a musical version of Fight Club, the Brad Pitt, Ed Burns movie about reclaimed masculinity.

"I'm obsessed by it. It's a call to arms against materialism and things that really matter."

You're rolling your eyes right now at that artsy-fartsy bon mot, but to her credit, Slean's an original, who doesn't lip sync a pre-written sentiment when she turns suddenly serious and says: "I'm bored of the superficiality in rock today. I want to live for beauty and truth. "

It's also been her ticket to Ottawa a couple times, the perfect environment for a romantic.

"There was a time walking home late at night I saw the Peace Monument," she recalls. "It was so beautiful in the snow, I started crying. Then, I started to think, 'what could ever go wrong in this city?' "

Play Parliament Hill next time and you'll find out soon enough.

Tickets for Sarah Slean are $12, $10 for students, at Ticketmaster and the door.