Post subject: Women's History Month Listening Project
I'm doing another listening project like I did in February for Black History Month, but for Women's History Month (March in US/UK/Australia). I began listening to women's music exclusively on March 9, and like before, I'll continue until the end of the month. Anyone want to join me for this one? Even if you don't want to listen to only music by women, feel free to join the discussion here by posting under-appreciated albums by female artists.
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Running list of albums I've listened to, ranked:
1. E·MO·TION - Carly Rae Jepsen 95.7
2. Loveless - My Bloody Valentine 92.2
3. Heaven Or Las Vegas - Cocteau Twins 89.2
4. Ladies Of The Canyon - Joni Mitchell 88.9
5. Goo - Sonic Youth (#) 4.5/5
6. Have One On Me - Joanna Newsom (#) 4.5/5
7. End Of Daze (EP) - Dum Dum Girls 87.2
8. Vulnicura - Björk 4.5/5
9. Blood Bitch - Jenny Hval (#) 4.5/5
10. I Never Learn - Lykke Li 4.5/5
11. Parallel Lines - Blondie 4.5/5
12. Victorialand - Cocteau Twins (#) 4/5
13. Blue Bell Knoll - Cocteau Twins (#) 4/5
14. The ArchAndroid - Janelle Monáe 4/5
15. New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) - Erykah Badu 4/5
16. Pieces Of The Sky - Emmylou Harris 4/5
17. Four-Calendar Café - Cocteau Twins (#) 4/5
18. Golden Hour - Kacey Musgraves (#) 4/5
19. Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit - Courtney Barnett 4/5
20. Elite Hotel - Emmylou Harris (#) 4/5
21. Luxury Liner - Emmylou Harris (#) 4/5
22. Head Over Heels - Cocteau Twins (#) 4/5
23. The End Of The World - Skeeter Davis (#) 4/5
24. Clean - Soccer Mommy (#) 4/5
25. Debut - Björk (#) 4/5
26. Turn Out The Lights - Julien Baker (#) 4/5
27. Crush (EP) - Ravyn Lenae (#) 4/5
28. Hounds Of Love - Kate Bush 79.8
29. Diamond Life - Sade (#) 4/5
30. Lesser Matters - The Radio Dept. (#) 4/5
31. Piracy Funds Terrorism Volume 1 - M.I.A. 4/5
32. Portishead - Portishead (#) 4/5
33. Depression Cherry - Beach House 4/5
34. Roses In The Snow - Emmylou Harris (#) 4/5
35. The Milk-Eyed Mender - Joanna Newsom 4/5
36. You Made Me Realise (EP) - My Bloody Valentine 77.8
37. Metropolis: The Chase Suite (EP) - Janelle Monáe 4/5
38. The Pendulum Vibe - Joi (#) 4/5
39. Strange Cacti - Angel Olsen (#) 4/5
40. No Dogs Allowed - Sidney Gish (#) 4/5
41. Just For A Day - Slowdive (#) 4/5
42. Quarter Moon In A Ten Cent Town - Emmylou Harris (#) 4/5
43. Half Way Home - Angel Olsen 4/5
44. Exile In Guyville - Liz Phair (#) 4/5
45. Ptah, The El Daoud - Alice Coltrane (#) 4/5
46. Kollage - Bahamadia (#) 4/5
47. Totep (EP) - Kero Kero Bonito (#) 3.5/5
48. In A Poem Unlimited - U.S. Girls (#) 3.5/5
49. Let England Shake - PJ Harvey (#) 3.5/5
50. The Kick Inside - Kate Bush (#) 3.5/5
51. Tapestry - Carole King 74.1
52. Black Tambourine - Black Tambourine (#) 3.5/5
53. Recreational Love - The Bird And The Bee 3.5/5
54. Wrecking Ball - Emmylou Harris (#) 3.5/5
55. Phases - Angel Olsen (#) 3.5/5
56. Gal - Gal Costa (#) 3.5/5
57. Blue Kentucky Girl - Emmylou Harris (#) 3.5/5
58. Kelly Lee Owens - Kelly Lee Owens (#) 3.5/5
59. Ahwar - Nadah El Shazly (#) 3.5/5
60. Pretenders - Pretenders (#) 3.5/5
61. Musas Vol. 2 - Natalia Lafourcade (#) 3.5/5
62. Truth Gotta Stand - The Luv'd Ones 3.5/5
63. Cut - The Slits (#) 3.5/5
64. Utopia - Björk (#) 3.5/5
65. Arrival - ABBA (#) 3.5/5
66. Pygmalion - Slowdive (#) 3.5/5
67. Someone Out There - Rae Morris (#) 3.5/5
68. Pleasure - Feist (#) 3.5/5
69. Lotta Sea Lice - Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile (#) 3.5/5
70. GFOTYBUCKS - GFOTY (#) 3/5
(#) = first listen during project
italics = listened in last week _________________ Add me on RYM
Last edited by baystateoftheart on 04/01/2018 16:35; edited 16 times in total
Some of these albums were actually rather appreciated in their time but are all but forgotten today. And I suspect that in many cases the artist's later crummy work might have overshadowed their earlier good stuff and given it a bad rep. Whatever the case, these are all great albums.
Aretha Franklin.... Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky)
Carly Simon.... No Secrets
Maggie Bell.... Queen of the Night
Patti Smith Group... Radio Ethiopia
Natacha Atlas....Gedida
Laurie Anderson.... Bright Red
L7.... Hungry for Stink
Diana Ross.... The Boss
Liz Phair... Whip-Smart
Nina Hagen.... Nunsexmonkrock
Lizzy Mercier Descloux.... Press Color
Bette Midler.... The Divine Miss M
Blondie.... Plastic Letters
Lene Lovich.... Stateless
Candi Station.... Young Hearts Run Free
Admittedly, women are underrepresented in my collection. But there are a few gems, and even some genres in which they outnumber their male counterparts.
I'm a huge jazz fan, but not big on jazz vocals. However, when I do go for the vocals, it's usually the ladies.
While women get good ink in jazz vocals, they are often ignored in jazz instrumental circles, but some women really rip, especially on guitar:
My greatest love for female led music is female fronted metal and especially symphonic metal:
There are some old pop records I love as well:
The ladies also excel in Celtic and other World Music. Life would be so much less rich without Lorrena McKennitt:
I feel like some underrated albums by female artists are:
1. When the Pawn... By Fiona Apple
2. Mama's Gun By Erykah Badu
3. The Boy Is Mine, and After the Storm By Monica
4. Pretty much all of Rihanna's albums have sold good but I don't think people really understand just how good she is.
5. Erotica by Madonna
6. Dangerously in Love by Beyonce
7. All of Carole King's albums other than Tapestry
8. Supernova by Lisa Lopes
9. The Notorious K.I.M. by Lil' Kim
10. Lust For Life by Lana Del Rey
Have a good one!!
Gutted I miss these bandwagons, feels a bit cheap of me jumping in half way through.
My chart has only one female artist, that's pretty pitiful - so I'll be making a solid effort the rest of the month.
Female Hip Hop is especially overlooked, maybe I'll make that my starting point and see where that takes me.
It's never too late! I only did the Black History Month project for the last ten days of the month haha.
Cool idea. If you want recs, here are all the female rap albums I have, all of which I like. This list is not counting Lauryn Hill solo, which is closer to r&b. Bold = highly recommended.
Raw Like Sushi (1989) by Neneh Cherry
All Hail The Queen (1989) & Black Reign (1993) by Queen Latifah
Kollage (1996) by Bahamadia
Ill Na Na (1996) by Foxy Brown
Respect M.E. (2006) by Missy Elliott [Greatest Hits]
Reservation (2012), Classick (2012) & Back To The Woods (2015) by Angel Haze
1991 EP (2012), Fantasea (2012), Broke With Expensive Taste (2014) & Slay-Z (2016) by Azealia Banks
Everybody Down (2014) by Kate Tempest
Candy, Diamonds & Pills (2015) by Gangsta Boo
A Curious Tale Of Trials + Persons (2015) & Age 101: Drop X EP (2015) by Little Simz
A Good Night In The Ghetto (2016) by Kamaiyah
Telefone (2016) by Noname
Laila's Wisdom (2017) by Rapsody
Superman (2017) by Wednesday Campanella [in Japanese]
And groups/duos featuring female rappers:
Reachin' (A New Refutation Of Time And Space) (1993) & Blowout Comb (1994) by Digable Planets
Blunted On Reality (1994) & The Score (1996) by Fugees
Crime Mob (2004) by Crime Mob
Underground Cassette Tape Music (2014) by Gangsta Boo & BeatKing _________________ Add me on RYM
Had a bit of a crazy week so I settled for albums I was familiar with
Lucina Williams - The Ghosts of Highway 20 - Not very familiar with Williams work besides this, but I've always adored this. Effortless country music, both her and the musicians she plays with have clearly done this for years and years and years, and it's a super easy listen.
Erykah Badu - Mama's Gun - It's a classic, one of the GOATs. Neo-Soul standard. Recommend it to everyone.
Carole King - Tapestry - Definitely has that rich early 70s sound. Just some great songs, non-complicated music. Great to spend the morning with.
Cat Power - Moon Pix - I've always loved this, really harrowing, but also something you can vibe to. Will definitely be catching up on Cat Powers' discography over the month.
Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark - Still falls behind Blue and Hejira for me, but very consistent and some really pretty moments.
Christina Vantzou - No 2 - Gorgeous orchestration, mostly lost to 2014 this one. Really solid listen.
Sharon Van Etten - Are We There - One of my favourites from the time. 2-3 really stand out songs, the rest delivers too - would soundtrack a Greta Gerwig film really well.
Bjork - Vespertine - Out of Homogenic I've never really been able to get into Bjork. This reaffirmed that.
Torres - Sprinter - Glad she went down a different path musically, but I much prefer her earlier stuff. A more confident album for sure, but no softer, dreamy moments.
Sevdaliza - Ison - Really solid, modern trip hop. Nothing feels particularly original, but every song here has a worthwhile, memorable moment going for it. A smooth ride, if a bit characterless.
Gunna spend some time this weekend picking up new albums for the week!
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