Month of Lists: Top Five Albums of the Decade (by Female Solo Artists)
3 Dec
By Jesseca Bagherpour
Trying to choose my favorite albums of the decade has been giving me a major headache (so has a sinus infection I’ve been fighting for a week, but that’s another story unto itself). I barely remember my favorite albums from the past month let alone the past 10 years. And when I start mining my brain and my music collection for favorites, I become completely overwhelmed. My musical tastes also change on a monthly basis, which means I’ll probably think all of my lists are wrong by January.
So, since I’m such an indecisive person and since we’re going to be posting at least one list every day this month, I decided to break down my favorite albums into categories. I was going to get scientific about my choices, really comb through all of my favorite albums. But I decided it really comes down to the ones that spring to mind first, the ones I couldn’t stop listening to.
Without further ado, the first of my lists- Top Five Albums by Female Solo Artists (spoiler: you won’t find Lady Gaga, M.I.A. or Susan Boyle on here):
5. Neko Case- Middle Cyclone
(2009, ANTI)
I know this won’t be a popular opinion, but I honestly prefer Neko’s work with The New Pornographers to her solo stuff. It’s not that I don’t like her solo work. I adore her voice, she’s a great lyricist and musician and I love the classic country sound. But her studio albums have never really grabbed me (the live album The Tigers Have Spoken is another story). Then came Middle Cyclone. I’m not sure why it hit me harder than her other work. Chess Sets. Perhaps the music seems fuller. Perhaps her voice seems more powerful. Perhaps I relate to the lyrics more. Perhaps this album feels like the most genuine and personal. You can really feel how much she means what’s she’s singing. Whatever it is, I’m not alone in liking Middle Cyclone. The album has received countless praises since its debut in March, both for its cover (Paste named it the “Best Album Cover of the Decade”) and its content.
Here’s one of my favorite songs from the album, her cover of Harry Nilsson’s “Don’t Forget Me”:
Neko Case- Don’t Forget Me
4. St. Vincent- Marry Me
(2007, Beggars Banquet)
While Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, has garnered a lot of praise for The Actor (which she released in May) and while I agree that the album is great, I still can’t get over her debut. I can only pick three songs (“Actor Out of Work”, “Marrow” and “Save Me from What I Want”) from her sophomore effort that really strike me and, to be frank, don’t start grating on me upon repeat listening. But Marry Me is a packaged deal. I may be partial to it because I first heard the songs when Clark opened for John Vanderslice at Dan’s Silver Leaf in 2007 (Jaime has much more interesting stories about actually hanging out with her, but that’s the best I have). As good as the recordings are, there’s nothing like seeing a solo St. Vincent show. But I think it’s also because, as a friend said, Clark sounds like she’s trying a little too hard to sound “experimental” and “avant garde” on Actor. With Marry Me, she’s just being her weird, beautiful, innovative self. Maybe she can re-discover that brilliant simplicity on her next album.
Watch St. Vincent perform one of my favorite tunes, “Paris is Burning”:
3. Cat Power- You Are Free
(2003, Matador)
It may sound corny, but You Are Free is one of those albums that it seems like I’ve been listening to all of my life. It feels like it’s a part of me. When I first bought it, I must have listened to it every day on repeat. That might say a little something about my mental state at the time (I was, admittedly, deeply depressed, as I’m sure Chan Marshall was when she wrote most of the songs), but I think it also says something about the beauty and perfection of the album. As dark as much of the material is, thematically-speaking, it fits whatever mood I’m in. Songs like “Free” and “He War” get my blood pumping, even if the rest of the album can bring me to tears (especially “Good Woman”). I don’t even have to be consciously paying attention to the lyrics for this album to break my heart, usually in a good way. Her voice and the instrumentals are enough to convey all the emotion in the album.
For the sake of keeping readers happy, I decided to share my favorite Cat Power song, the aforementioned “He War“.
2. PJ Harvey- Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Stories
(2000, Island)
PJ Harvey is one of the coolest women in rock and roll. I can’t think of anyone I want to be more. She’s sexy in an other-worldly, waifish way. She dated Nick Cave, which automatically elevates her to a higher plain of coolness. She’s got a badass persona that has me convinced she could win in a fight against pretty much anyone. And her music is incredible. Her voice is unmistakable and she’s one of the best lyricists of our time. Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea is the first of her albums that I listened to in its entirety and it’s still my favorite. It’s perfect from start to finish (as I think all of the albums on this list are). Her music is always raw and sexy, but the energy level is at a peak on Stories. It’s also more focused and polished than her previous work. As Harvey said herself, it’s more beautiful than her other albums. There’s still a darkness too it, but it’s much more subdued and less disturbing. There are some incredible love songs on Stories, including her duet with Thom Yorke which, along with his duet with Björk on Selmasongs, made me realize what a truly great singer he is. It’s an exquisitely sad song about love gone wrong and their unique voices complement each other brilliantly. And the song “This is Love” was my favorite even before I could relate to it.
Maybe I like “This is Love” so much because of its video, which is one of the coolest music videos ever made, despite or perhaps because of its simplicity:
1. Björk- Vespertine
(2001, Elektra)
Björk is, hands-down, my favorite female vocalist. I first fell in love with her when I saw the Michel-Gondry-directed video for “Human Behaviour”. I was 10 and admittedly a little “different” from other kids my age (one of my major crushes at the time was on The Cure’s Robert Smith). And I’ve been an ardent fan of hers ever since. I can’t think of a single album, let alone song, of Björk’s that I don’t like. In fact, I’m hard pressed to find one I don’t adore. That made it hard to pick my favorite album of hers from the past decade. Vespertine, Medulla, Volta and the soundtracks for Dancer in the Dark (Selmasongs) and Drawing Restraint 9 are all works of art. The (almost completely) a capella Medulla is a creative masterpiece (and the live performance of “Oceania” at the 2004 Olympics took my breath away). But Vespertine, a calm, gorgeous, album full of personal songs (many of them about deep love), always wins.
Because this is my top pick, I have included a video and a track from the album:
Björk performs “Hidden Place” at the Royal Opera house:
And this is one of my favorite tracks, which almost became a single, the inspirational “It’s Not Up to You”