Songs Are Like Tattoos: Female Singer-Songwriter Rolling Thread

At the moment, at least for listing the best female singer-songwriter stuff to come out this decade, cause there's been so much and I'm sure I've missed a ton. Here are, off the top of my head, a bunch of the albums I've really really loved. (Some of these may be pushing the definition a bit.)

Alela Diane - To Be Still
Beth Orton - Comfort of Strangers
Cat Power - The Greatest, You Are Free
Charming Hostess - Sarajevo Blues
Courtney Love - Nobody's Daughter
Jewlia Eisenberg - Trilectic
Judy Collins - Sings Leonard Cohen: Democracy
Kathleen Edwards - Asking for Flowers
Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim
Neko Case - Blacklisted, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, Middle Cyclone
Paula Cole - Courage
Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope, Soviet Kitsch
Scary Mansion - Every Joke is Half the Truth

Gillian Welch's two albums from this decade have been stellar

definitely second laura marling.

Aimee Mann's last two records were great.

Josephine Foster, This Coming Gladness
Mary Hampton, My Mother's Children
And everything by Marissa Nadler.

I very much approve of this thread. I've been toying with starting something like this for a while after getting into a bit of argument with Kate a while back about "Lilith Fair" music. I feel like there's a line that separates the respectable (Joanna Newsom and Neko Case, say) from the unrespectable (Paula Cole - I didn't even know she'd released an album this decade Mordy!). But it's an odd line, hard to see and quite unpredictable at times.

Stuff I really like from this decade:

Maria McKee - Peddlin' Dreams (this is fantastic. Maria is such an amazing full package)
Stina Nordenstam - The World Is Saved
Jenny Wilson - Love & Youth
Ani DiFranco - Revelling/Reckoning
Lhasa - The Living Road

these are both probably decade top-20 or 30 for me:

nina nastasia & jim white you follow me (really i like all 5 nina albums from this decade, but this is my favorite. depending on the day.)
keren ann not going anywhere (she had nice enough stuff both before and after this, but this one's the only classic imo)

also worth checking:

abigail washburn & the sparrow quartet (s/t)
paula frazer & tarnation now it's time

and i feel like shannon wright deserves a mention, but tbh i much prefer seeing her live to any of her individual albums.

oh, and vashti bunyan.

also --- kate bush!

i really loved paper anniversary and nevertheless from christine fellows

also basia bulat's oh, my darling

Sarah Blasko who I've completely ignored for ages assuming she was all folksy and cheesy but she's pretty damn amazing and quite odd, in a lovely way.

And I <3 Imogen Heap.

gemma hayes. her last two albums seem to have been largely ignored and are both great

I've got a huge list now from this thread of stuff I've gotta listen to.

other newer fssw i dig: beth jeans houghton, helen page (paperplain), emma tricca

cortney tidwell (esp. this ewan pearson rmx):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIbIYoqMXLA

from brasil:

Cibelle - s/t, The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves
CéU - s/t, Vagarosa

^^^that cortney tidwell song is singled out cuz it's like one of my top 5 of the decade prolly, and the rmx is really perfect (esp at club volume)

I do quite like that Alela Diane record. My favorite Josephine Foster record, though, is "All The Leaves Are Gone."

Am I allowed to talk about Emmylou Harris in this thread?

Adding a seasonal touch (well, almost) – Sarah McLachlan's album of Christmas songs is quite, quite lovely.

And everything by Marissa Nadler.

― anagram, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 00:28 (9 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Everything else once you've heard and rinsed her first two albums, is what I'd say in fairness - she is great tho

'Me Oh My' by Cate Le Bon is the best thing I've heard in this 'category' in 09, it's got a bit of broadsheet <3 but none on here that I noticed

Got tickets to see Laura Marling in NY in February. Super excited!

tara jane o'neil seems to release albums under the radar. this year's a ways away is kinda a nice summary of her stuff, probably one of my favourites from this year.

jolie holland; the last sharon von etten lp, too.

No-one stanning for Brooke Waggoner? The 'Fresh Pair Of Eyes' EP is completely completely astonishing imo/

Just... stop-what-you're-doing-and-listen-in-amazement stuff?

I really like that Sharon von Etten song that Sean Gramophone made his track of the year, that's great.

I always forget that this is my favourite genre!

The K.D. Lang cover of 'Bird on a Wire'! Lispector's 'Human Problems and How to Solve Them' (still an album of the decade)! Abigail Lapell - Boston Song!

Any idea if the new Waggoner album is good?

Hmmm. Should I get Beth Orton tickets too?

Any idea if the new Waggoner album is good?

I... don't like it that much? I mean the title track is pretty great but I haven't found too much else to get into.

It doesn't do much of the "mm-hmm this is pleasant... o it is a piano... oh wow this is really good" thing that I really like in 'Heal For The Honey'

New Laura Marling is freaking awesome.

The first track "Devil's Spoke" is just tremendous.

I want to read what Luke Valentine thinks about Emmylou Harris. Please.

I did not know her before today, but what I've heard of this new Laura Marling album is really good. Not really my usual thing, but my usual thing seems pretty in flux at the moment anyway.

mentioned elsewhere, but I've been really fascinated by the last Tiny Vipers album.

So I've lately been listening to a lot of 1970s more-obscure (at least to me) female singer-songwriter music. Particularly the Linda Perhacs album, Susan Christie's Paint a Lady, The Pentangle's Sweet Child (not entirely this genre), Fairport Convention (don't love it like the others), Judee Sill (omg), + Janis Ian's Between the Lines (a little later in the decade than these other albums). What's some other stuff that's got a similar feel that I might dig? Especially anything like Perhacs or Christie. I'm checking out Magic Carpet too.

I wonder if Beth Orton's "Shadow of a Doubt" is consciously evoking Annie Briggs' "Go Your Way." They even articulate the relevant lyrics ("You go your way, my love, you go your way") in a similar way it sounds (at least to my ears).

belatedly 2nding Christine Fellows's Paper Anniversary, one of my favorite albums ever, period

also, Sarah Dougher's The Walls Ablaze - it's 99/00 but is all-time imo

Wiki has the answer!

A song on Beth Orton's Comfort of Strangers, 'Shadow of a Doubt' is cited as an ode to the song 'You Go Your Way', the chorus being somewhat directly lifted.

So awesome.

I like chelsea wolfe when she's doing the trad singer-songwriter thing. seems like she'd rather be a spooky goth girl, which doesn't work as well for her as the straight forward stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skk5b69I6xk

no martha wainwright mention itt? for shame

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzPHHpi1bUA

larkin grimm's parplar never got the props it deserved I thought

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr_wW9UT1Tw

So, what's the best stuff from 2010? Here's my list:

Anais Mitchell - Hadestown
Cathy Davey - The Nameless
Charming Hostess - The Bowls Project
Clare Burson - Silver and Ash
Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me (Ok, I really only like a couple tracks off this but probably deserves a mention on the thread)
Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can
Roni Alter - Kis Avir (Amazingly gorgeous Israeli singer-songwriter album)
Taylor Swift - Speak Now (maybe not this genre really)
Tracey Thorn - Love and Its Opposite

What else do I need to check out from this year?

Kristin Hersh - Crooked is fantastic even though the best songs are B-sides now. Susanne Sundfor's The Brothel is also good.

lots of people have been raving about Thea Gilmore's new album but on (admittedly first and cursory) listen it's a bit samey to me. Also Laura Veirs, although I haven't heard it.

Tracey Thorn - Love and Its Opposite

soooo underpublicized

Check out Elizabeth Cook's album

Or the amazing debut by Rumer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERzNIzrEnLg&feature=related

New Nina Nastasia is really great, probably my favourite album in this vein for 2010 (that I've heard).

Angel Olsen is my favorite right now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hcQP40lNkw

i don't know if it was just the video, but that sounds really creepy! reminded me of http://static.letsbuyit.com/filer/images/uk/products/original/209/86/ghosts-of-futures-past-spiritualism-and-the-cultural-politics-of-nineteenthcentury-america-spiritua-20986788.jpeg

New Alela Diane (Alela Diane & Wind Divine) that's really beautiful. As good (maybe even better) than To Be Still.

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/aleladiane.jpg

I still think she's a million times better than Joanna Newsom (doing similar things).

i hope he doesn't mind, but reposted from Laura Marling thread:

A top 10 would be impossible to do - there's so much to choose from. But, some recommendations off the top of my head, not necessarily from the 70s:

Wendy & Bonnie, that beautiful Chimera album from 1969, Margo Guryan, Sibylle Baier, Veronique Chalot, that nice new Carol Kleyn reissue, Bridget St. John, Connie Converse, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Judee Sill, Suzy Mangion, those early Elżbieta Adamiak recordings, etc.

(With also this side order (admittedly perhaps projected) tinge of a sneer of why bother listening to female singer songwriters at all, they're just this faceless mass of banality? It really smacks of "there can be only one"-ism.)
Yes, you're clearly projecting, as 'female singer-songwriters' constitute a large percentage of what I listen to on a daily basis.

― The Not Liking Radiohead Awards (Turangalila), Wednesday, July 27, 2011 11:43 AM (17 minutes ago)

bc this can't be posted enough on ilm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uKl3xeBVY4&feature=player_embedded

OTM

The you/too/blue/true/flue/moo/grue grates but otherwise it's absolutely gorgeous

Although of course I would've totally fallen for a "You just might be eaten by a grue"

"they said that the world is built for two / it's dark, you will likely be eaten by a grue"
haunting imo

Backwards compatible with PS2

omg that song

That Lana Del Ray song is just... wow. The first thing I've heard in ages that gave me the shivers.

oh wow I love this

yep yep

obsessed

http://www.avclub.com/articles/exclusive-stream-jennifer-oconnor-steps-out-on-her,64888/

Gorgeous

New Frida Hyvönen:

http://svtplay.se/v/2711638

I thought her first two albums were completely brilliant, perfectly delivered heartbroken piano-pop, but this is a slight turn of direction that really works.

One of the happiest things for me is when this thread is updated :P

I've got a ton of stuff to post here soon... I'll check out Hyvonen tho right away.

Ok, so stuff from this year that seems relevant to this thread. All of it is available on Spotify:

http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/host.madison.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/0/47/047d9454-4090-11e1-8432-0019bb2963f4/4f14a23543b1c.image.jpg

Kathleen Edwards - Voyageur (my fave album of the year so far, despite only 5 really strong songs - but they're really really good!)
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/2CjPZev1d4F9fVnRV4TcQh

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lr6tu6AGx41qzszr3.jpg

First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar (some good stuff, despite Conor Oberst showing up on a few tracks)
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/3zmPFx2ilVB0nx2XKVH5Qc

http://www.the-tune.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/ae8ac1cabf7feac7505d66d8e1a74125.jpg

Ani DiFranco - Which Side Are You On? (not a huge fan of hers, or this album)
http://open.spotify.com/album/5aIEUKZZzFuFOY1yciFh6U

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6eWUNusUJQA/Twrd-wQ1CsI/AAAAAAAACSg/3YXKeSQATq0/s640/LG_LaGrande_Small.jpeg

Laura Gibson - La Grande (kinda laura viers / alela diane / acidey folk vibe from Portland)
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/4ixzvUAUHm17jojcasFupf

http://media.prefixmag.com/site_media/uploads/images/post/h/hospitality/hospitality_jpg_630x640_q85.jpg

Hospitality - Hospitality (debut - i think - album from Brooklyn based Amber Papini fronted band, single 'Friends of Friends' kinda reminds me of Michelle Shocked style urban folk / Regina Spektor anti-folk)
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/0CcRg0EwFcCKw99gLIcOCQ

http://survivingthegoldenage.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Grace-Woodroofe-Always-Want.jpg

Grace Woodroofe - Always Want (i think this one is actually from 2011, but i didn't hear it until recently: bluesy and she's got really fabulous vox)
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/7KEFYylXXJkokbWC90Frz8

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/417gqe8p6-L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Madison Violet - The Good in Goodbye (another 2011 - i think - release that i only recently got to hear - Canadian folk, maybe i'm more impressed by the cover than the music which largely recalls Dixie Chicks tbh, 'Goin Away' for some reason evoking Meg + Dia for me)
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/5Br5a4ZmMboIw1Qzo0L02h

http://www.behindthehype.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/the-civil-wars-barton-hollow.jpg

The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow (really beautiful - i didn't know about this album until they won the Grammy for best folk. it's got that Americana folk/blues sound aka Alison Krauss-esque that the voters love so much. Joy Williams shares vocal duties with John Paul White)
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/7wmwaIt99NVwdOc7Z8jXYK

Also special mention to Lacuna Coil - Dark Adrenaline which doesn't really fit this thread but I don't think we have a female fronted metal thread yet (altho if j3ff is reading this: we should have one!)

Anything else so far this year I'm missing that is good? I haven't heard the Grimes album yet -- would that fit here?

i really like this song by claire cronin (LA-based musician/artist/poet), she has a kind of oldham-ish vocal warble:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69Qw4h7Expw

New Dar Williams album IN THE TIME OF GODS, is my fave thing she's done in a decade. "I Am The One Who Will Remember Everything" is a highlight:

http://youtu.be/4NjB6gUbAMk

Gah!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NjB6gUbAMk

some other albums that fit (ok, some of this stuff stretches the definition substantially, but it's all great) that i've liked this year:

V/A - The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond
http://open.spotify.com/album/45nqVXRAW0xv0wpU9JljPN

Karen Dalton - 1966 (recorded in 1966, but maybe my album of the year)
http://open.spotify.com/album/1K7tpapZGd6Ax1YA2vXNEA

Nneka - Soul is Heavy
http://open.spotify.com/album/2y8fPjPCWanp8VbAIycIaT

Mirel Wagner - Mirel Wagner
http://open.spotify.com/album/33jmg7nlISoNdjKXhC0IpR

Lyriel - Leverage (gothic metal, actually, but close enough)
http://open.spotify.com/album/6eVtM5u0K3DXbOFUajNaIo

Colleen Green - Milo Goes to Compton
http://open.spotify.com/album/3maiMpeCNMkpxxwGngBmdo

Sarah Aroeste - Garcia (ladino)

Marissa Nadler - The Sister
http://open.spotify.com/album/3pmoAaokJOGLTaXViwejVc

loving new Cat Power which i think is still streaming over at NPR

little spotify playlist of this thread type music: http://open.spotify.com/user/mordys/playlist/74xrKvuYOArQjAWXYulk0G

um, i hope he doesn't mind me reposting him but curmudgeon on rolling favorite music thread recommends (and totally fits the vibe here):

I have never heard the Crutchfield sisters who are involved in 2 of Jon Caramanica of the NY Times fave indie-rock albums of the year (I have also not noticed anyone repping for them here, but maybe I mised the thread)

They’re 23 now, these twins, and even though the Ackleys are just a memory, the Crutchfields have continued, forming one band after the next, building a series of cult followings and arriving at the present moment with gale force. Separately they’ve made two of the year’s best and most affecting indie rock albums: “American Weekend” (Don Giovanni), by Waxahatchee, Katie’s solo project, which was released in January, and the self-titled debut album (on Salinas) by Allison’s band Swearin’, which was released in June.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/02/arts/music/allison-and-katie-crutchfield-twins-go-separate-ways.html?_r=1&ref=arts

also not on spotify but aimee wilson has a new album out that incorporates sacred harp influences which is def worth checking out, if only bc sacred harp is pretty awesome

Of related interest (though not strictly a singer-songwriter in the narrowest sense):

Company of Thieves

(though absolutely nobody I know virtually or in real life seems remotely as excited by Genevieve Schatz and this band as I am.)

Meanwhile there are a lot of names on this thread I can't remember if I've ever tried out, so I should get busy.

Dar Williams' "I Am The One Who Will Remember Everything" sound like a cover to me but I can't figure out from where and Google just points back to Williams. Any ideas? Maybe something it sounds a lot like?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NjB6gUbAMk

Nina Nastasia is apparently going to record another album w/Albini soon, according to an interview w/Albini

also she supposedly had a band with Kim Deal o_O

listening to this nina nielsen album, 'love and terror in the wilderness'. i have not so much tolerance for breathy scandinavian voices these days but the music is very sparse and moody and just interesting enough. people who liked the mirel wagner might enjoy this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLunRzzw5m0

that was maybe not the most ringing endorsement but i do really like this song^

Noa Babayof - From A Window To A Wall

sad chamber-folk album, released in 2007 and immediately ignored despite the Greg Weeks/Espers connection. listen if you like Marissa Nadler and Nick Drake or if "Give Me a Smile" is your favorite Sibylle Baier song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrQBGWsGIO4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2WG6raAJnM

the whole album is on on bandcamp actually. I didn't realize it was originally released in Israel (she moved from there to Philadelphia for the sake of her music). it doesn't seem like she's released anything else in the past 5 years.

http://www.stolenrecordings.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/The-Moths-Are-Real.jpg

Serafina Steer - The Moths Are Real

Really pretty I thought! Anyway, the first fs-s of the new year I've heard and enjoyed. A little glittery, shimmering but her voice is very light and pleasant.

is the rolling female singer-songwriter thread sexist?

definitely

no mention of Mariee Sioux on this incredibly sexist thread? she's Alela Diane's soul sister, apparently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmF6DmQoqEE

not just sexist but incomplete!

Sera Cahoone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I1NfjXCcAc

Thumbs up on the Serafina Steer album, nice record!

http://blog.newsok.com/bamsblog/files/2013/01/samantha-crain-kidface-cover.jpg

so this samantha crain album is pretty great

Only one listen in, but this new Waxahatchee sounds exactly like Kathleen Edwards recording an early Liz Phair record, to me, so I think I'm gonna like it.

Someone over on the Electric Mole Forums (a Shiina Ringo board) has good things to say about Torres, who sounds okay to me (the whole singer-writer deal isn't really my thing most of the time):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkSLJOZX62w

Cibelle put out a new song yesterday and... wow?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc-BL1fav5U

That Torres album is briliant.

the new kt tunstall record is incredible

just these gorgeous and spare arrangements; the way the elements build softly out of the track on stuff like "crescent moon" and "chimes" is breathtaking. the songs are simple, sharp, super pretty

Nadine Shaw doesn't seem to have been mentioned on ilx. Gloomy. Album on Spotify now. I like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkg-BZI-WRA

Sorry, Nadine Shah.

http://d3c1jucybpy4ua.cloudfront.net/data/18204/main_article/Laura-Veirs-album-cover-Warp-Weft.jpg?1375166305

Laura Veirs - Warp + Weft

the new kt tunstall record is incredible

huh. I don't like it nearly as well as the last two. not much to hold onto. also FUUUUUUCK that A. Bird whistling solo in the 2nd tune, what the hell guys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JxwSMUd6E8

^ Laura Groves who previously went under the name Blue Roses. It's *very* Bat For Lashes/Kate Bush but I like it anyhow.

have i mentioned how much i love the new laura veirs?

Yeah, it's pretty great.

http://www.npr.org/2014/06/01/317090235/first-listen-first-aid-kit-stay-gold?ft=1&f=1039

http://www.npr.org/2014/09/07/345594161/first-listen-lia-ices-ices

thank god 4 npr first listen amirite?

http://s11.postimg.org/vrdvszy83/Beccy_Owen_Imago_album_cover.png

Beccy Owen – Imago

My favourite album in years, and maybe the most universal one she'll ever make. The story is fairly self-explanatory. Quite simple arrangements, mostly just voice and piano, and it's not a long album at all. Just right. Great songwriting, especially on the second half (the sad bit).

Listen at https://open.spotify.com/album/6fysZ4KUlXw6bWqOwYwea2
(Bandcamp is less listening, more buying)

Beccy Owen's other work has covered things like musical theatre, lullabies, an upcoming charity album mourning the British socio-political situation, and other such commercial shoo-ins.

so far this year:

Jesca Hoop - Memories Are Now
Aimee Mann - Mental Illness
Laura Marling - Semper Femina
Miranda Lee Richards - Existential Beast
Nicole Atkins - Goodnight Rhonda Lee

The Aimee and Laura records have multiple highlights, definitely.

the new waxahatchee album also tremendous but u already know that

Sunny Sweeney - Trophy

i was listening to that a lot last night. pretty uneven imo. some great tracks but stuff like "nothing wrong with texas," or "i feel like hank williams tonight" just feel terribly trite

https://johannawarren.bandcamp.com/album/chaotic-good