Tracy Bonham
Even with her electric Gibson strapped to her 5-foot-plus frame, Bonham looks like she wouldn't weigh 100 pounds. But as the barbed lyrics and explosive guitars of this fierce, major-label debut suggest, she's hardly a lightweight. Bonham, 29, is the newest pledge in alternative pop's ever-swelling sorority of splenetic sisters, which includes Grammy golden girl Alanis Morissette, Liz Phair, Aimee Mann and Courtney Love. True to form, she is merciless on ex-boyfriends. In "The One," Bonham, who wrote the album's 12 songs, lets loose: "You're the one that froze the sun/ Say you love me as you pull the trigger."
Like Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Bonham has an uncommon knack for embroidering her rage with catchy melodies. She accomplishes this on one of the record's best tracks, "Mother Mother," which lures the listener in with a bouncy acoustic riff before Bonham detonates screeching guitars and her own bloodcurdling shrill. This mouse can roar. (Island)
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