Fiona Apple

Fiona Apple
12 x 6 inches, oil on board, 2017

Three years ago I wrote about Fiona Apple's The Idler Wheel... it was her latest album two years old then, in 2014, and it it still is. She's been at it twenty plus years but only released four albums so far. The song in the Top 100 this year is "Every Single Night" a single from the 2012 album. In the meantime she has done some collaborations and some Trump bashing (which is all good, if you ask me.)

Troy

Sinéad O'Connor
16 x 20 inches, oil on canvas, 2017

Troy is really a great song,  ever since it appeared in 1987, and rose to the top in Dutch charts, I have always liked it but only now, thirty years later it appears in my Top 100 list. I never painted her before either. Sinéad O'Connor has been in the news recently drawing attention to depression and mental illness. God bless Sinéad O'Connor. So this is a tribute, way overdue.

Hidden Vagenda

Kimya Dawson
16 x 20 inches, oil on canvas, 2017

Thanks to my friend Jake, who is a big fan, I have copies of most Kimya Dawson recordings. The former member, with Adam Green) of the Moldy Peaches has since released seven solo albums and a number of other recordings with different bands. I have been listening a lot recently to her fourth: Hidden Vagenda of 2004. The cd features a number of guests of whom Daniel Johnston and Regina Spektor are the best known. Most songs however are recorded in her kitchen with her characteristic acoustc guitar and solo voice. "It's Been Raining" is one of the solo ones and one of my favorites but I also like "Anthrax" with a full rock 'n' roll band and "I Will Never Forget" featuring a chorus of friends. They may all end up in this year's 100.