Glad to see love for Tegan and Sara on here! Right on, you guys!
Oh do get into Patty if you can. She's one of the most rewarding recording artists I can think of. American Kid is great, but I don't think anything will ever surpass the sublime 1000 Kisses.
How familiar are you with her work generally?
She never really
retired though. She always said she was "working on an album" even back in the mid-90s. She'd just started a family and had gone down to part-time hours, so to speak. Aerial and 50 Words are departures for her in some ways, and certainly not to every fan's taste, but then, every Kate release has been like that. She's had a fairly high fan-turnover ever since Never For Ever, I think people just forgot that as the fanbase settled during her 12 year hiatus. I certainly couldn't blame anyone for disliking 50 Words. It's absolutely replaced The Dreaming as her most wtf!? album (actually I think The Dreaming stopped being "difficult" years ago, though), but I think it's among her best work, and I've heard enough people concur to be confident I'm not just some wacky outlier.
I'm surprised Fiona Apple's The Idler Wheel hasn't been mentioned here yet. It usually pops up on these threads by this point. I often feel like the only person on the entire planet who doesn't connect with Fiona at all... I'm kind of enjoying its absence, to be honest.

Although I do recognize its greatness on an objective level.