In PJ Harvey's early work, rhythm was at the center, and she'd be a good test of headphones' liveliness and slam. I don't want to divert this thread from its mission, but I will say PJ mixed razor-sharp musical intelligence with brutal, gut eruptions of music like no-one else. For example, she wrote "Sheela Na Gig" in 1987 at age 18, and if you don't know what that name means, check wikipedia before you listen to the song. She worked that topic into a feral, sexually-inflamed taunt by a young woman that sounded brutally authentic, and even worked in a refrain from the musical "South Pacific" that was the perfect rhythmic and lyrical counterpoint to the rest of the song. "Gonna wash that man right out of my hair....Gonna take my hips to a man who cares..." indeed. Even the words have rhythm: that's just a slurred couple of syllables away from perfect iambic pentameter when sung out loud.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+sheela+na+gig&view=detail&mid=484599447D93A0C8FFED484599447D93A0C8FFED&FORM=VIRE0&ru=/search?q=youtube+sheela+na+gig&form=ANNTH1&refig=c077ed3144f341718756fcc9a5f05ca9
She spoke to me, anyway, when I was already edging into middle age. (And no, not because she wrote a suggestive piece of music!) She could play half a dozen instruments well, is still the only performer in the UK to win the Mercury Prize (top recording artist) twice, and she also won four Grammies. Rolling Stone loved the London cobblestones she walked on. But she didn't have as large an audience as Nirvana and the other early alt-rockers. Everyone in my family, especially my musically-trained daughter, whose musical opinions I revere, look on me with patronizing silence if her name comes up. She really isn't for everyone. But I'll be 70 in a couple of years, and I'll eventually die with the regret I missed a concert of hers in Boston in the 90's.
"Dry" in 1990 or so was a brilliant debut album, and "Songs from the City" a decade later was the most commercial and accessible album. Listen to the "Dry" album on the Closed X's and then the "Rid of Me" album and you will then have a laser fix on the DCA headphones' rhythmic drive or lack of it. But if she catches your interest, it's all the albums that fall between "Dry" and "Songs from the City" that will pull you in deeper. Her music has evolved far afield since then and been successful, but that first decade or so was her peak for me.