Fiona Apple

A complex musical presence throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, Fiona Apple generated considerable praise for her preternatural songwriting ability, which addressed issues of love, lust and longing in exceptionally literate and adult terms. Apple rose to fame while still a teenager with Tidal (1996), a lush album of piano-and-string-driven ballads which reached triple platinum status thanks to such brooding numbers as "Criminal." Her second album, "When the Pawn..." was released in 1999 and brought her further fame. Apple maintained a passionate fanbase, which rose in her defense over alleged label mismanagement of her third record, Extraordinary Machine (2005). The album found Apple settled comfortably into her newfound status as a cult favorite, which granted her more freedom to pursue her muse to her own content. A fourth album, The Idler Wheel (2012) solidified Apple's status as one of the music industry's most eclectic and free-spirited performers, as well as a formidable chronicler of the human heart's more extreme flights.