Peaches

Like most extreme acts, this trash-talking MC's strengths are best showcased in wham-bam singles. To sustain interest between fourth-album climaxes, the Berlin-based sleaze queen collaborates with London's Simian Mobile Disco, who ditch guitars in favor of diverse synthetic settings: For "Lose You," she even breathily surrenders to ethereal Italo-disco. But the prime cut is the Soulwax-produced "Talk to Me," on which Peaches sing-screams over electronic cock-rock so tense and nasty it out-sexes her salacious rhymes elsewhere.

By Barry Walters