Ex-Dresden Dolls star Amanda Palmer made news this year when she raised $1.2 million on Kickstarter, but her third solo album dispels all thoughts of revenue streams. You could call it retro: the synths, tensile guitar riffing, and hiccupping Lene Lovich vocals are pay homage to late Seventies-early Eighties New Wave and Goth-pop. ("Melody Dean" is straight-up "My Sharona" tribute.) But Palmer’s sharp songwriting and inventive arrangements transcend pastiche. It's one of the year’s best rock records – $1.2 million sounds like a bargain. 

Listen to 'Theatre is Evil':

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.