I must admit I don't know Kristeen Young, and I don't even care, but wow, this was a lovely read.
I especially liked your point about Morrissey seeing something in her... (Off I go to listen to her songs on youtube. Where should I start?)
The first album, 1997's
Meet Miss Young and Her All Boy Band isn't bad; it sounds like Tori Amos if Amos had never been raped. Standout songs would be
9,
Fishnet,
Don't Go Back To School, and
P.E. 9.14.
The second record,
Enemy (1999), is pretty harsh and all over the place, and very much encapsulates on tape the live sound she came to be known for but if you can get through it there's some rewarding stuff like
Marley's Ghost and
The Good Night and a few other keepers.
Then there's
Breasticles (2003), which is pretty OK, with a few phenomenal songs like
We Want More,
Touch Tongues,
Wake The Dead, and
Incubator, and a semi-amazing Bowie duet called
Savior. His vocals are wonderful on it; maybe the best singing he did that whole decade.
The fourth album, from 2004, was called
X (Ten) and is really strong and concise and
fun, with very little of the KY sound you've all come to know and hate. It's a pretty straightforward rock and roll album and contains some of her best songs.
Yesterday's Future Man,
Commit Adultery,
The Best Of All Things,
My T.V....these are all all wonderful. There's also a really good song on it called
No Other God but I'd recommend opting for the bonus track version where she doesn't share vocals with the annoying as shit Brian Molko.
2006's
The Orphans came next and it's what she had going on when her Morrissey association began; it's excellent, song for song. It's hard to single out the best track but if forced I'd go with
Kill The Father,
This is The Dawn of My D-Day,
Life's Not Short..., and
Under a Landlocked Moon. Really, really good album with no weak tracks. Also a favorite of Morrissey's, if that matters...which, sadly, it probably does.
The follow up,
Music For Strippers, Hookers, and The Odd On-Looker, was released in 2009 and, although it's pretty good; it's about two songs too long and most of the tracks are kind of samey; however it's not bad.
The Depression Contest,
Stop Thinking,
I Won't Be Home For Christmas, and
Halfway Across the Atlantic Ocean are all fantastic tracks.
Protestant is really good too, but unlike when she used to play it live, for some reason in the recording studio she decided it had to be a six minute long masturbatory Rush-sounding epic, and something was lost. Morrissey fans may find it interesting if for no other reason than that it was written during/after her experiences on tour with him the first time around; the album is dedicated to him, and the most of the songs are about him.
The last thing she did, an EP called
Fantastic Failures which she put out last year, I can't really speak on because I can't get through it. Way too synthy and produced and contrived. I can't make it past the first song and a half.
So anyway, yeah. If you or anyone is genuinely interested in her music but don't know where to start, I hope that helps. She's got some good stuff and I
think everything she's released since 1997 is on Spotify.
In my opinion,
most of her music is too esoteric to be of any value to anyone but her. Which is fine, but it's sad that to her this equates to people being mental patients worthy of euthanasia. But I guess when you've toured with Morrissey for as long as she has, your mouth starts to write checks your ass can't cash.
Now if I could only figure out why my toe turned blue for the last few days, I'd be on to something....