Only two British female artists have reached the top 10 in U.K. album charts seven consecutive times. There’s Kate Bush, and then there’s Katie Melua, whose catalog has been certified 56-times-platinum around the world but remains a relative unknown in the United States. The singer-songwriter—who was born in the nation…

When Goldfrapp keyboardist-composer Will Gregory was 21, the Englishman left college with the notion of making his way to Los Angeles and learning jazz. The electronic musician, now 57, got in a car, and when he got back out, he was not in Los Angeles but in Berkeley. Goldfrapp…