Poe, "Haunted"

Way back in 1996, an ingenue calling herself Poe scored a modern-rock hit with "Angry Johnny," a delicious revenge fantasy in which a self-described "Jezebel in hell" details the various ways she could kill the title character. Hell hath no fury, etc. The densely produced song couldn't have been better timed; Alanis Morissette (and to a lesser degree, Meredith Brooks) had confirmed an audience for fiery female fulminations, we hadn't yet exited the golden era of alt-women (Juliana Hatfield, Tanya Donnelly, et al.), and 1997's last great burst of modern pop was just around the corner.

Problem was, Poe was not prolific. Indeed, she's only released one album since that bright debut. But what an album it was: Haunted, issued appropriately on Halloween in 2000, was an audacious artistic statement, a concept album of sorts (Poe's found some old recordings of her deceased father and uses them to communicate with him and put some ghosts to rest) that both rocked and danced hard. Alas, it flopped since it didn't have The Hit Single (tm), she lost her record deal, and she's remained silent ever since.

But listen to the title track and tell me this isn't some of the more vital music of the 2000s - spooky yet spacious, vibrant and vivid, honest, melodic, possessed of both brains and heart. Perhaps this album could have fared better under the new media distribution of the late '00s. But without that viral kick, Haunted exists as a cult classic - in my mind if no one else's.