I suspect it might not seem quite so unsettling, at least initially, if you listen without the video, but the Bette Davis eyes, spastic choreography, and leisurely jazz square at 6:22 seem somehow intrinsic to the interpretation. If you don’t have time for the whole thing, skip to 5:15 where Cunegonde suddenly transforms into a terrifying prison warden.

Could it be that Simone Kermes, whose tone was harsher and more focused, was perhaps eclipsed in otherwise similar repertoire by her contemporary, Vivica Geneaux, whose own phonation was distracting for other reasons? But no matter the reason for Kermes’s rather speedy relegation to obscurity (she now mostly does concerts), her bizarre and ersatz whimsy shines through on her brilliant and filthy cover of Lady Gaga’s “Pokerface.”