Peaches

Sex-centric empress of club-thumpin' electronica, Toronto's Peaches succeeds in getting deliriously down 'n' dirty while — at the same time — stimulating an intelligent, album-spanning discourse on the language of carnality . . . no mean feat, especially when you consider the numbing predictability of so-called horniness in the 21st century. Whip up a fully-squelched, lapdancin' lather to "F**k the Pain Away" from sensational Peaches debut The Teaches of Peaches, and stomp through to climax with the glam-rockin' "Boys Wanna Be Her" from 2006's Impeach My Bush. Peaches proves it's all about sharing the goodies, with a host of hook-ups . . . in Next Steps.

From time to time, Peaches likes to stir some hip-hop into her cream, and the results are usually spectacular — check out "Billionaire" featuring rapper Shunda K from Yo! Majesty (with its nifty rhyming of "debonair" with "Fred Astaire footwear") or "I Got You" with C-Murder. Beth Ditto joins in with some kinky backing vocals on "Two Guys (For Every Girl)," sometime songwriting partner Gonzales (a.k.a. Jason Charles Beck) helps Peaches ramp up "Felix Partz Remake" to warp speed, and Mignon transforms "Casanova" into a double-sided treat.

Former primary school teacher, and ex-roommate of Feist, Merrill Beth Nisker earned herself a solid grounding in arty, underground club rock before loosing herself on the world as Peaches in 2000. And there's much more to the artist than the overt bawdiness and electro-titillation of her song and album titles — here, after all, is a singer who named an album Fatherf***er (and appeared on its cover in a full, manly beard) in order to question our habitual overuse of the word "motherf***er." Her trick is to make such provocative explorations of gender politics and sexual identity immensely danceable — so get your grind on, and break out an oversized grin, to "Slippery Dick," "Shake Yer Dix," "Tent In Your Pants," and "Redneck Sex," as Peaches pitches her pole somewhere between Grandmaster Flash, Visage, Flight of the Conchords and Prince.