Vanessa Carlton

On her second album, this 23-year-old piano whiz jettisons the Fiona Apple influences and finds a darker but more ravishing aesthetic. Songs like "White Houses" and "Half a Week Before the Winter" are lyrically elegant and musically involving while remaining accessible. You can hear her Debussy influence in "Papa."

As the Wayans brothers' movie White Chicks made hilariously clear, Vanessa Carlton's 2002
hit "A Thousand Miles" is, like, the whitest song ever. This year, our huffy ivory-tickler
delivers another spazzy, arpeggiated single, "White Houses," which is not about the real
White House but does kind of conjure the Bush twins jamming in a drop-top. Smartly
produced by Third Eye Blind frontman (and Carlton squeeze) Stephan Jenkins, ... More >