20. Belle and Sebastian "Dear Catastrophe Waitress"
I've always been kind of intrigued by Belle and Sebastian but prior to hearing this album i'd only like a handful of songs from what i'd heard. It was sad because it seemed like they had it in them to create a great pop album because they did create great pop songs but they just didn't (keep in mind I hadn't heard If You're Feeling Sinister or Push Barman To Open Old Wounds).
After hearing this release my view on them completely changed. Stuart Murdoch, who's always been a big attraction to me for them, seems on top of his game lyrically with songs like Piazza, New York Catcher and If She Wants Me which were clever as they were beautiful and the songs were just irresistibly catchy, they were slightly baroque popish at times and undeniably twee, but with an edge.
Favorite Song: Piazza, New York Catcher
MySpace.com - Belle & Sebastian - UK - Indie / Pop - www.myspace.com/thebandbelleandsebastian
19. Linda Perhacs "Parallelograms"
What do you get if Joni Mitchell did more drugs? You get Linda Perhacs. Parallelograms takes the heavenly bliss of Vashti Bunyan and expands and experiments with it by creating beautiful folk songs inspired by psychadelic music. This album when I heard it blew me away because of how painful and real it is and the thing that shocked me was how pretty much no one had heard of it, not even the obscure elitist folk fans who would orgasm all over tracks like Paper Mountain Man. This album could've been extremely influential if it had received more attention and lately it sort of has with the recent psych-folk revival which encouraged Vashti to dust off her guitar and thank god it encouraged Perhacs to do so too (she's working on a new album now.)
Favorite Song: Hey, Who Really Cares?
MySpace.com - Linda Perhacs - Los Angeles, US - Folk - www.myspace.com/lindaperhacsdeliciousrain