Robyn – The dancefloor that tells the truth
Dancing on My Own is a club record that refuses the usual lie.
Grace Jones – Marble, bass and a stare
Grace Jones does not enter a song.
Johnny Cash – The baritone that kept its word
The man in black did not dress for mystery.
Ozzy Osbourne – A howl that learned the dark
The farewell was a black throne at Villa Park, Birmingham, on 5 July 2025, a short walk from the Aston streets where John Michael Osbourne had learned to shout.
Lauryn Hill – The sermon and the sample
In the summer of 1998 Lauryn Hill put a whole argument on one record and then, mostly, stepped back.
PJ Harvey – Mud, wire and a raw throat
Polly Jean Harvey arrived from Dorset with a guitar that sounded like wire pulled through wet earth.
Patti Smith – Poetry with a microphone and a snarl
The first line of Horses does not ask permission.
James Brown – The hardest working pulse
James Brown did not ask a band to keep time.
George Michael – A pop voice with a private weather
The white jeans and the jukebox guitar were a costume.
Kate Bush – Theatre in the upper register
In January 1978 a nineteen-year-old from Bexleyheath put a ghost story at number one in Britain, and she had written every line of it.