#66. Nellie McKay - Get Away From Me (Sony, 2004)

Hey, Stylus ain't around anymore and someone needs to remind people that this is a fucking great album. So what if the two disc packaging is unnecessary for a release that clocks in a just under an hour, or that McKay's youth works against her a few times when she gets into to heady of subject matter ("It's a Pose" is saved by its chorus but the 'you've committed every rape' line still seems leaden) or that it's a bit unfocused? Look at the results: a 19 year old Norah Jones who instead of making boring music for coffee shops and soccer moms makes an album that flits from rap (the hilarious "Sari") to smooth jazz ("I Wanna Get Married", "Really") to Tin-Pan Alley and back all while throwing out bitingly caustic lyrics aimed at pretty much everyone who might buy this album. It's almost a tour de force in defying listener expectations; you see a cute young girl at her piano but what you get is a woman who isn't afraid to tell you and everyone like you to fuck off before she interpolates "Carolina in the Morning" into a song about the apocalypse.