Sam Phillips

Sam Phillips released her debut album 'Cruel Inventions' in 1994, followed by 'Martinis and Bikinis' two years later. She wrote songs like 'Signposts' and 'Song In The Night' with a kind of haunted clarity that felt both personal and slightly detached. Her voice had this quality that made even straightforward lyrics sound like they were coming from somewhere else.

Her third album 'Zero Zero' came out in 1999, and it included 'How To Dream,' which became her most recognizable song. That track reached the Top 20 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart, which gave her a bit more visibility than she'd had before. Around that time she also contributed to film soundtracks for movies like 'The Ice Storm' and 'The Thin Red Line.'

Phillips kept making records through the 2000s and 2010s, putting out albums like 'Don't Do Anything' in 2005 and 'Projector' in 2015. She worked with other musicians occasionally, including David Byrne and Iggy Pop, but mostly she operated as a solo artist. Her songs never really settled into one genre, they moved between folk, jazz, and more electronic textures without announcing the shifts.