Female Singer/Songwriter Thread

[Kimbell175113]

gotta keep this thread going...

Nellie McKay



(it's pronounced "Mc-Eye")

Here is someone for whom I had heard critical acclaim for a while, and when I finally listened to her first album I didn't know what to think. It's all over the place, with each song being having a totally different genre and style and subject matter and "level" than the previous one. But by the time I got to the second disc (yeah) I started to understand the brilliance.

Her first album is called "Get Away From Me" (it came out during the heyday of Norah Jones, get it?) and by the time you're halfway through it you've heard reggae, jazz, rap, cabaret, and pop that sounds like it's from some decade that got lost in the shuffle of the 20th century. Her second album is more of the same (if that's possible), a little better but without the novelty. She's got a third album out but I haven't listened to it enough yet to give a report.

The songs are sarcastic and not, about Nellie's life and not, simple and not; basically you have to stay on your toes while listening. This is "brain music," it won't exactly affect you emotionally. It'll sound cool, it'll get you thinking and paying attention to the lyrics and the styles, and it'll be fun to analyze later.

And that's the only problem I have with her music. You can rarely tell what level she's on, whether a particular feeling in a song is genuine or calculated, and sometimes it's discouraging. Also, her first two albums are two-discers and there's definitely some "filler" that's fun to think about but not to listen to. If that's something you enjoy, you'll love Nellie McKay. I can't say she's for everyone, but she's... unique, and one of the few artists I get excited about.

Here are some links, for your pleasure:

"Ding Dong"

"Sari"

"Happy Flower"

edit: put song titles instead of rando YouTube URLs

[Kimbell175113]

^ Man, I am so glad I wrote that, because it reminded me to finally listen to her new album. Sooo good, well-made, and [censored] hilarious. And at thirtyish minutes, this album is compact compared to Nellie's last two monsters. I would say it's a good starting point for a new listener, but really all of them are.

[Dominic]

this gal's fantastic Kimbell...thanks!

[Dominic]

PJ Harvey




This is the coolest chick in rock, period. Polly Jean Harvey is an English singer/songwriter, and probably the most acclaimed female pop/rock musician of the last 25 years.

Her career began as one-third of the trio, PJ Harvey with two blistering albums, Dry and Rid of Me.

Rid of Me (live)

Oh My Lover (live)

Man Size

50 Ft. Queenie

She continued as a solo artist (with the same name) and has since released several amazing rock albums, all of them different from the last.

1995's To Bring You My Love was voted by many publications (The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, The LA Times) as the best album of the year, and it was later ranked 3rd in Spin Magazine's Top Albums of the 90s, behind only Nirvana and Public Enemy.

To Bring You My Love (live)

Down By The Water

C'mon Billy (live)

In her live performances, Polly Jean likes to bring a sort-of "cabaret" feel and look to things, and seeing her in concert is a revelatory experience. She's fantastic.

1998's Is This Desire was a more muted affair, building mood pieces around piano and keyboards:

A Perfect Day Elise

Angelyne

The Wind

In 2000 she released her most popular recording to date, Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea. It was a more melodic and lush recording, garnering great reviews but also leaving Harvey with some accusations of "selling out" by some of her most ardent fans:

This is Love

Big Exit (live)

A Place Called Home (live)

In 2001, a readers poll in British music mag Q rated PJ Harvey as the number one woman in rock. Later that year, she released Uh Huh Her, another departure for the artist, as she played all the instruments and produced the album herself:

Shame (live)

Who The Fu*k

In 2007, Harvey released White Chalk, an album of piano ballads. She's also know for her many collaborations - if I started listing them we'd be here forever! But here's a video of her and Nick Cave together:

Henry Lee

And a performance with Bjork on an amazing reworking of The Stones classic:

Satisfaction (live)

*********

PJ Harvey is probably my favorite music artist of all-time. She's deserves your undivided attention if you choose to look her up!

[Kimbell175113]

Wow, nice post, Dom.

Starting now with video #1 of 17.

[Kimbell175113]

[ QUOTE ]

Starting now with video #1 of 17.

[/ QUOTE ]
some of those were pretty [censored] delicious imo

I think you may have created a new PJ fan, sir

[J.A.K.]

OK, if any of you have anything else along the lines of Azure Ray's "Drinks We Had Last Night" or the Richard and Linda Thompson "Heart Needs A Home" stuff...please keep'em comin! Incredible! I've become almost one dimensional in my music and it's the dreamy, haunting, harmony stuff that keeps me perpetually sad. Last year, in my search for music similar to Mazzy Star I found:

Liz Durrett- out of Athens, GA

Came across her on Pandora and her style and voice make me look forward to being melancholy. her site lists 3 albums and I have not heard a bad song from any.

Here's a Cat Steven's cover How Can I Tell You and her MySpace page has a new song-Far From Home (The direct link failed)-that's pretty good. My Favorite by her is "Vine" off her Husk album...but I can't find a link for it. A couple of drawbacks may be that her songs run together after a while and lyrics in a few songs fail to connect, but the voice makes up for it IMO.

Also, I remember liking Poe's Hello album Fly Away (Ignore the stupid Anime Video) and the more popular Hello. (The hotness doesn't hurt) Thought she would have a little more staying power.

[Dominic]

[ QUOTE ]
OK, if any of you have anything else along the lines of Azure Ray's "Drinks We Had Last Night" or the Richard and Linda Thompson "Heart Needs A Home" stuff...please keep'em comin! Incredible! I've become almost one dimensional in my music and it's the dreamy, haunting, harmony stuff that keeps me perpetually sad. Last year, in my search for music similar to Mazzy Star I found:

Liz Durrett- out of Athens, GA

Came across her on Pandora and her style and voice make me look forward to being melancholy. her site lists 3 albums and I have not heard a bad song from any.

Here's a Cat Steven's cover How Can I Tell You and her MySpace page has a new song-Far From Home (The direct link failed)-that's pretty good. My Favorite by her is "Vine" off her Husk album...but I can't find a link for it. A couple of drawbacks may be that her songs run together after a while and lyrics in a few songs fail to connect, but the voice makes up for it IMO.

Also, I remember liking Poe's Hello album Fly Away (Ignore the stupid Anime Video) and the more popular Hello. (The hotness doesn't hurt) Thought she would have a little more staying power.

[/ QUOTE ]

JAK...I'm gonna start a Trip-Hop/Chill/Dream Pop thread...that should keep you in Mazzy Star-like music for a long time...

And Poe's album Haunted is pretty damn great...an interesting meld of pop/rock/flamenco/electronica...

[TiK]

Wow, I need to start visiting this section of 2+2 more often. Great post Kimbell. I too find that I gravitate towards women singer/songwriters more than men. I think it's the fact that when I hear someone sing, I picture them singing for me, and it's easier (and more of a turn-on) to imagine a woman singing to me than a man.

Anyway, lots of great artists listed so far, many of whom I love. I'll just add my commentary for those already mentioned:

Björk - Just fantastic. As others have noted, definitely can't "get" her from just listening to one or two songs. For those of you who enjoyed her solo stuff, I also recommend her stuff when she was with the Sugarcubes. This stuff is a lot more poppy, but in a quirky good way that only Björk can pull off. It's great stuff.

Hit
Birthday God I love when she wails.
Motorcrash

Lucinda Williams - Funny story. I was recently at a Magnolia Electric Company concert in NYC, which happened to be on the same night as Lucinda Williams' concert at Irving Plaza. In the middle of the show, Jason Molina says to the crowd: "I'm missing Lucinda for you [censored]." (censored word rhymes with suckers and starts with "f") at which point pretty much the entire crowd shouts back, "me too!" Pretty funny. I wish I could've caught both concerts though. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Fiona Apple - It's already been mentioned but the leaked unofficial version of Extraordinary Machine is much much better than the offical release. Try to get your hands on it if you can.

Gillian Welch - Another one who I love. Definitely worth a listen.

Tori Amos - As others have already noted, she is fantastic in concert. Definitely one of the most intense concerts I've ever been to. This was at Ithaca College circa 1998. I too stopped paying attention to her new releases over the years and recently bought a few of her recent albums after hearing one of her new songs on the radio that caught my ear. She seems to be trucking along at a fairly good clip.

Chrissy Hynde - I absolutely love that smooth buttery voice of hers.

PJ Harvey - God, I love this woman, so damn sexy. Dominic noted that she is "the coolest chick in rock, period," and he's 100% correct. She isn't the best looking girl in the world, but definitely can vie for the title of "sexiest."


Neko Case
Etta James
Aimee Mann

I will add one or two of my favorites later, when I'm no longer at work and have some time (and if they haven't yet been mentioned). The fact that I didn't comment on a few of the above artists doesn't make then any less good than those of whom I did comment on.

[Kimbell175113]

TiK,

welcome, we're glad to have ya. Anyone who types the ö in Björk is okay in my book.