Female Singer/Songwriter Thread

[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 ]
this gal's fantastic Kimbell...thanks!

[/ QUOTE ]
glad you like her.

If anyone wants to spend 99 cents on iTunes, I'd totally recommend "Identity Theft" from Nellie's new album. It is A++

[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...

[J.A.K.]

[ 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...

[/ QUOTE ]

Awesome, looking forward to it!

This thread is great. I first heard Elizabeth Fraser singing Song To The Siren in Lynch's Lost highway. I had never heard of Linda Thompson, but instantly loved her. Joni Mitchell of course is sick. Watching her perform Both Sides Now, she shows a humility and almost awkwardness that's a refreshing break from the camera-aware, over-emoting performances prevelant today.

[daveT]

I think it is neat that the three main contributors to this thread have a large contrast in tastes. I haven't posted any reviews because I don't want to write negativity, but I have not liked much of what I heard.

However, I think I am a new fan of PJ Harvey. On Nellie McKay: I don't like her, although I have a strange urge to like her. I will probably like her once I acquire the taste.

[Kimbell175113]

[ QUOTE ]
On Nellie McKay: I don't like her, although I have a strange urge to like her.

[/ QUOTE ]
hahaha, I understand completely.

She's definitely cut from a different cloth than most of this thread. After spending some time listening to Nellie's new album, I clicked on your Brightman link, except I was still in the mode of expecting everything to be hyper-aware and ironic, so I just couldn't stop giggling at the slo-mo animal images and the giant, serious concert atmosphere.

'Brechtian' is a word that The Dresden Dolls have recently popularized to describe their music, but I think it applies even better to McKay.