Grace Jones’ music is a proud embodiment of contradiction. She referenced the antiquated cabaret traditions of Paris and Berlin while embracing futuristic production techniques. She was an icon of underground club culture but refused to make conventional dance music. She made songs that were intensely lustful yet boldly undermined all conventional notions of beauty and sexuality. In short, she created her own genre of music: part funk, part disco, part new wave, part avant-garde, and more than a little Jamaican. Each of her songs is like an intense but very inviting party. Though you're warmly welcomed, the point isn’t necessarily to have fun or to be happy; it's to experience something intense and atypical. If you're new to Jones, you might start with “Pull Up to the Bumper” or “La Vie en Rose,” two unique but undeniably likeable dance hits. For a more complete understanding of her unique powers, proceed directly to her atmospheric and tantalizingly ominous covers of Tom Petty’s “Breakdown,” Flash & the Pan’s “Walking in the Rain,” and Chrissie Hynde’s “Private Life.”