[TurtleFu]

Imitation Girl is a great song, and I've listened to it countless times. But I can't honestly say it's an Omori song, for one. It's just a highly crafted J-Pop tune with some great lyrics. But most likely if someone else were to release/record the song, then I would dismiss it. But like you said, a LITTLE trademark. I'm looking for Omori to be more inventive, not create idol pastiches. I do have to credit her wtih bending the avex mold as far as it could though, but who knows, maybe she'll bend it even farther??

If you notice, a lot of these albums were "great, but not quite there yet". Azealia Banks, St. Vincent, FKA Twigs, Seiko Omori, all of them released albums that showed POTENTIAL more than anything else. And Lazaretto is hardly the best album of Jack White's career.

Ultimately, the reason why Beyonce and Imogen Heap are the top 2 is because they released what I believe will be called their magnum opus.

There's another important thing about Imogen Heap: like I said, each song has a story, and knowing that story is not essential to enjoying it but definitely enhances the experience. Imogen has been blogging about making the album for a couple of years, and I've eagerly followed along as it was built brick by brick. It's a sound engineer's wet dream, and she really pushed the envelope. It's basically what Bjork TRIED to do with Biophilia but failed at.

I seriously could write pages and pages about Sparks, going through each song and breaking down the background, how she made it, etc. but I'll spare you that. You can look up the blog posts yourself.