NPR's 150 Albums Made by Women

DJP, stop being OTM. I'm getting tired of it.

btw i always include the bonus tracks when I refer to 4.

tbh i wouldve been fine with all three placing.

Agree that Beyonce needed to be on here. I'm less partial about which album (every one named has great songs; I probably prefer 4 myself, overall), but I just thought that Lemonade placing that high was a little too much like OK Computer topping that Q poll six months after it's release. She's still at that point in her career, though, where each new album can plausibly be called her greatest. We won't know what her best work is for decades yet.

I'm OK with Post, which probably says the exact thing about me that Eric suspects it does. I'm only surprised because I thought Homogenic had overtaken it in many people's affections by now (again, I have no agenda here, as I think both albums are great).

I'm clearly allergic to Britney, but I think I would have eye-rolled less hard if they had gone with one of her clubbier albums (In The Zone, Circus, whatever) rather than the debut. As it stands, NPR now has to live with the fact that they included an album that contains a song called "Email My Heart" on a list of best albums of all time.

Lists and lists so there will always be head scratchers on either side of the line, but surprised to see there's no McGarrigles, and no Sandy Denny. But especially no My Bloody Valentine.

(Lists are lists, that should lead.)

32. Björk
Post (Elektra, 1995)

The go-to for anyone who doesn't actually rate Björk.

That's me!

the critical rehabilitation of Nina Simone has really been interesting, would not have predicted it 10 years ago when most people had no idea who she was

oh I don't know -- in my circle she was the only black woman singer my friends were listening to in the late '90s. She always had her cult. It's critics who condescended to her.

she was def a cult figure, maybe partially because her catalog was so much about re-working the canon (so many covers and covers) that people didn't register her POV as being authentic or authorial or something (rockism etc.)? A lot of things about her previously coded as "square" - the virtuoso technique applied to super-pro studio arrangements of contemporary hits or weird genre exercises, for example. She doesn't fit into prior established roles of black, female artistes. So it's interesting to see her suddenly explode into wider pop consciousness because of... what, exactly? The documentary? The end credits of Inland Empire? idk

lol that was supposed to say "so many standards and covers"

sorry

what's next, a Joan Armitrading revival

Jeff Buckley was big on Nina Simone, iirc.

I'm not surprised. If it isn't clear I'm not a huge Nina fan myself - can take or leave most of her catalog - but I can't deny she's a fascinating figure/personality.

what's next, a Joan Armitrading revival

― Οὖτις, Monday, July 24, 2017 5:55 PM

She's good too. I'm surprised she wasn't on the list!

well as noted there's all kinds of gaps. these sorts of lists are always telling in who's in/who's out indicating what's culturally valued critically these days. Poptimism still in full swing, obviously.

all the biggest post-boomer names represented, recent chart-pop goddesses respected, Gen X/riot grrl feminist wave present, a smattering of non-English speaking artists to demonstrate global breadth.

but nothing too obscure or currently maligned/ignored, various minor genre outliers, or too old (the starting point here is really lame, as noted. No Carter Family!)

Poptimism still in full swing, obviously.

grr

am I supposed to use some other term

Liking pop music has been part of the listening and critical experience since the beginning: Stevie Nicks, Aretha, Kate Bush (in England) were pop stars. Including Britney is no different. An argument for another thread, though.

fair enough, yes I was using it as shorthand for "critical post-90s chartpop darlings"

and Madonna of course!

eh I consider Madonna in a league of her own tbh

(granted it's still a league I have no interest in listening to, but her place in the culture is undeniable)

To offset the griping (mostly mine), three that I was delighted to see here: Patty Griffin, Sheila E, Against Me!

I see what you did there.

xpost

high five

Was Grace Slick in there? surely she defined and woman-ized the otherwise-male Jefferson Airplane in much the same way Kim Gordon did Sonic Youth?

I think the reasoning might be that Slick rarely had more than a few songs on any given Airplane release, and outside of those songs her biggest musical contributions were harmonies whereas Gordon had a bigger part of SY both in songwriting and as a bass/guitar player.

I say this because I can't be the only one who picked up Surrealistic Pillow after seeing it on umpteen 'Women In Rock' lists and being disappointed that the only Grace songs were the two I already knew from the radio.

So much good stuff and nothing I could think of that was missing, tho I didn't see Judee Sill?

Amy Winehouse ranked in top 10 is OTM - Such a great loss, the only one I think who could've brought doo-wop back again and make it fresh

I can think of lots of stuff missing but they are personal favorites and why would critical consensus overlap with them

yeah I can think of stuff missing now too like Vashti etc but i'm with you there on consensus

the fader came out with their own list of 150 more great records by women: http://www.thefader.com/2017/07/24/150-more-great-albums-made-by-women-npr-list

Still no Gal Costa. We need 150 more.

top 1000 or gtfo

iirc Nina Simone's rehabilitation into the mainstream happened because of two 90s movies.

Bridget Fonda's 'Point of No Return' in 1993 and, later, the use of "Sinnerman" in the remake of 'Thomas Crown Affair' in 1999.

Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think And Sometimes I Just Sit
Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid
Jazmine Sullivan - Reality Show
Kathleen Edwards - Failer

They picked the wrong (or at least less correct) Rilo Kiley and Tegan and Sara records, but yes to these!

Joni Mitchell is one of the few artists represented twice on this list, including (deservedly) at the top, but still, surely, Court and Spark should have made it thrice. Also, where's Anne Briggs?

Re Simone, I remember hearing "My Baby Just Cares for Me" quite prominently in 1995's Shallow Grave.

i don't think the reasons why are really mysterious, but reading through the npr list it seemed disappointing to me - basically, like, inescapably bound to the meagerness that can seem to attach to 'great x by women' or 'important women who xed' counter-historical efforts, where it's always the same handful of examples set against the historically biased entirety of xing. it's like the '... by women' version of a rolling stone greatest albums list or whatever that ends up having sgt pepper's or revolver in the top slot, but the legacy conceptions driving the listmaking process are the artists' past starring-role involvement in '... by women' narratives.

and then looking at a list like the fader list, it seems way more like a list of great albums - i bet if it wasn't flagged as a list of albums by women it would even take a while to register that it even was.

Re Simone, I remember hearing "My Baby Just Cares for Me" quite prominently in 1995's Shallow Grave.

Yeah, that's another one. Her resurgence came via movie soundtracks.

Some other major omissions: Dolly Mixture - Demonstration Tapes, Heavenly - Le Jardin de Heavenly, Big Mama Thornton - With the Muddy Waters Blues Band. Of more recent stuff I would have included the most recent Julia Holter, Hurray for the Riff Raff, and Chastity Belt probably as well. But that's just me.

Slapp Happy - Acnalbasac Noom would have been a kick to see here as well.

Looking forward to a bunch of dudes criticizing the list.

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

looking forward to endless bickering about #109

lol at npr confusing aynsley dunbar and sly dunbar

Still no Gal Costa. We need 150 more.

― Frederik B, Monday, July 24, 2017 7:06 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's really hard for me to look at this as anything other than "a list of records" given the selection criteria and this is still an awful omission

stuff like mirah, hanne hukkelberg, slapp happy and perhacs are omissions but more of a personal nature and the list is as others have mentioned, hit heavy

That's a lot of bad music on that list there, tell you what.

Some good stuff, too, though.

Btw, Peggy Lee made some pretty outstanding albums from 1964 on, including the one they dipped into for the Mad Men finale, Is That All There Is?. I realize she was no Britney Spears or Robyn, but still.

Re Jefferson Airplane: I understand C. Grissom's point, and his explanation for their absence is probably dead on, but for me Slick's centrality to the band can't be quantified by songwriting credits or number of vocal turns. Her two songs on Surrealistic Pillow dwarf the rest of the album in terms of public awareness--they shouldn't, there are other great songs, but they do--and my own sense as a teenager in the mid-'70s, when I bought Worst Of, was that she was the face of the band. I knew her name long before I knew Marty Balin's or Paul Kantner's.

The Sings Johnny Mercer Song Book is an excellent Ella pick, but for a second there I indulged in - wha-wha-what, this lower than Adele - type listicle outrage!

5. Missy Elliott
Supa Dupa Fly (The Goldmind/Elektra, 1997)
This album dismantled the hip-hop boy's club. For the first time in history a woman rapped, sang, wrote and produced every song on a major rap release.

I dunno if it makes sense to suggest the hip hop boys club was dismantled in 1997, but that's just contemporary journalism, and I wouldn't want to argue against praise in favor of this album. However, I'm surprised by the suggestion that Missy produced this album since it's usually assumed to be (and certainly sounds like) an all Timbaland production. Anyone know more about Missy's role as producer on this?

looking forward to commenters looking forward to the 150 albums made by men

...list

Hell yeah

amerie and fka both on the list

you don't have to argue anything, I accept that this list is missing a lot of rnb I just want to know what it is because I like the genre

motivation is definitely missing!

I missed Amerie (I don’t consider Fka r&b)

reggaeton is easily more popular than any other form of latin music in america right now

it's great to see I'm With Her finally getting the credit they deserve.