The English-born singer/songwriter falls solidly into this tradition: She mines a style honed in lower Manhattan workshops like the Bitter End and perfected over two albums that flit between bracingly honest confessionals and whimsical wordplay, as evinced by their titles, 2000's Comatised and 2001's I Tried to Rock You but You Only Roll. It's not revolutionary stuff and it's not meant to be; the simple, melodic arrangements strike emotions in a way that overtly intellectual music never could.