I'm gonna put my credibility on the line and recommend Nellie McKay's new album after only one listen. She's a 19-year-old songwriter/pianist/rapper. Her flow is totally copped from Paul Barman, but who really cares? She rhymes about high school bullies, Dr. Phil, Paul Wellstone's funeral ... but most of the songs on these two discs (yes, a double CD debut -- ballsy) are Tin Pan Alley-style ballads with lines like, "Give me head or you'll be dead / Salute the flag or I'll call you a fag." Hott. Obviously she's making no attempt to pander to record buyers -- this disc is all over the place. There's a silly song where she serenades her CLONE (whom she affectionately calls Clonie): "The Olsen twins got nothing on us." Later she calls herself a "yuppie fuck." It's a cabaret-pop album with a PARENTAL ADVISORY warning! Full of contradictions. The most original disc(s) I've heard all year. Of course, next week I'll be sick of it. Until then ... recommended for fans of MC Paul Barman, The Magnetic Fields, and girls with dirty mouths.
(This is gonna be out of left field ... but she reminds me of Kaytee from the short-lived American High series. Anyone know what I'm talking about?)
