Fiona Apple "Tidal" [1996]

I'm guessing that if 90s fashion waif Kate Moss had tried to record a CD it would have sounded a lot like this; give Ms. Moss credit for sparing us this husky voiced, faux-soul box of disgruntlement and maudlin Gen-X balladry. Fiona Apple's handlers likely envisioned for her (and themselves) plenty of MTV video success, but here on her debut album she proved cranky and difficult enough to manage resisting everything but her impulse to add mellotron (or optigan, you dumb-ass purists -- same fucking difference!) to everything and constantly rewrite the progression to Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man." In "Tidal," she proves she's headstrong enough to foist her sub-par singing and piano-playing talents on a generation of kids who were already incredibly bummed out to begin with. A decade later, Fiona Apple would have been one of those pitchy white girl soul singers who gets voted off "American Idol" in the early rounds, but at least she never lowered herself to the indignity of covering Billy Joel or Diane Warren schlock in front of millions on prime-time TV. She's always been self-possessed enough to fail on her own terms, and on "Tidal" this she does -- mightily.