NPR's 150 Albums Made by Women

ten FYC

Julien Baker Sprained Ankle
Mary Margaret O'Hara Miss America
Be Your Own PET s/t
Made Out of Babies The Ruiner
Joanna Newsom Ys
Sleater-Kinney The Woods
Rachel Unthank and the Winterset The Bairns
M.I.A. Kala
Shiina Ringo Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana
Cloud Rat Qliphoth

Don't really want to return to the original list but picking the one Nico album where she sang cover versions, of songs written by men, over the ones where she sang her own compositions is particularly O_0

I regretted not having room for Madonna or Sinead, so its good to see others picking up my slack.

Shiina Ringo Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana

ha, just cut this one. it's perfect though

I submitted

Hejira - Joni Mitchell
Broken English - Marianne Faithfull
Indigo Girls - Indigo Girls
True Blue - Madonna
King - Belly
Aaliyah - Aaliyah
Speak Now - Taylor Swift
King's Record Shop - Roseanne Cash
Nightclubbing - Grace Jones
Wrecking Ball - Emmylou Harris

wish I'd found room for Sade & Kate Bush & Patsy Cline & Sinead &

I would vote in this but I don't like the idea of ranking those tbh

50 Foot Wave - Power + Light
Paramore - After Laughter
Warpaint - Heads Up
Blondie - Eat to the Beat
Lush - Spooky
Hole - Live Through This
Wolf Alice - My Love Is Cool
Wolf Alice Visions of a Life
Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion
Taylor Swift - Fearless

Not ordered. Just off the top of my head. Could have gone further obvs.

Simon, it says #1, etc, but they say it's not ranked.

oh nice, good looking out

Oh fuck, I should have included Art Angels. Goddamn it.

joni mitchell - hejira
meshell ndegeocello - the world has made me the man of my dreams (i probably like bitter more but what an achievement)
minnie riperton - perfect angel
sade - stronger than pride
janet jackson - the velvet rope
alice coltrane - journey in satchidananda
shiina ringo - kalk samen kuri no hana
chubby wolf - ornitheology
tori amos - boys for pele
lauryn hill - mtv unplugged no. 2.0

submitted a list and then realized a whole bunch that i forgot (d'oh)

anyway, here's what i shoulda submitted

Joni Mitchell - Blue
Susanne Sundfør - Ten Love Songs
Hop Along - Painted Shut
Pretenders - Learning to Crawl
Blondie - Parallel Lines
Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part One: Fourth World War
Minnie Riperton - Perfect Angel
Aretha Franklin - Young, Gifted & Black
Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out
Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel...

lol how did i forget sleater-kinney, might replace something w the hot rock

hole - celebrity skin
britney spears - blackout
fleetwood mac - tusk
alice coltrane - journey in satchidananda
sade - stronger than pride
janet jackson - the velvet rope
aaliyah - aaliyah
cassie - cassie
kate bush - hounds of love
gal costa - gal costa

Be Your Own PET s/t

Great call

This is weird to me... the world is full of great albums made by women. Why list a random 10? Makes it seem like they can’t “compete on a level playing field” or something.

They're prob just doing a reader's poll and they think that more people will answer if they don't have to name 50

they are albums
they're made by women
albums
made - by - women

facts of life - black box recorder
stories from the city stories from the sea - pj harvey
dr buzzard's original savannah band st
madonna st
transgender dysphoria blues - against me!
velvet rope - janet jackson
elegant slumming - m people
big science - laurie anderson
so so satisfied - ashford & simpson
lady soul - aretha franklin

last train to paris and the xx felt too male

Joanna Newsom - Ys
Bjork - Vespertine
Kylie Minogue - Fever
Kate Bush - Aerial
Shiina Ringo - Shouso Strip
Tori Amos - Boys for Pele
Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas
Susanne Sundfor - Ten Love Songs
Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer Up A Hill
Fever Ray - Fever Ray

10 favourites off the top of my head

My only criteria was it had to be something I had legit worn out at one point (or several points) in my life.

Dig Me Out - Sleater-Kinney
Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica - The Ronettes
Celebrity Skin - Hole
Exile in Guyville - Liz Phair
Horses - Patti Smith
You Follow Me - Nina Nastasia and Jim White
Blackheart - Dawn Richard
Parallel Lines - Blondie
Pretenders - The Pretenders
Everything's Different Now - 'Til Tuesday

Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
Bjork - Homogenic
Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Paramore - After Laughter
Electrik Red - How to Be a Lady Vol. 1
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
Cat Power - You Are Free
Alice Coltrane - Journey in Satchidananda
Cocteau Twins - Treasure
PJ Harvey - Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea

Oh man, I really should have had The Dreaming on mine. Maybe I'll vote again.

Went ahead a did a second one...

The Dreaming - Kate Bush
The Lion and the Cobra - Sinead O'Connor
Dry - PJ Harvey
Raw Like Sushi - Neneh Cherry
Cut - Slits
Kala - M.I.A.
Supa Dupa Fly - Missy Elliott
King - Belly
Little Earthquakes - Tori Amos
Colossal Youth - Young Marble Giants

10's tough (i mostly listen to female artist tbh)

Pj Harvey - Is This Desire?
The Slits - Cut
Judee Sill - S/T
IAM - Kin
Gudrun Gut - I Put a Record On
Emiliana Torrini - Fisherman's Woman
Dawn Richard - Redemption
Catherine Ribiero + Alpes - Paix
Tori Amos - Boys for Pele
Roisin Murphy - Hairless Toys

This is what I came up with last night, but I might tweak it before I vote

Bonnie Raitt - Give It Up (Warner Bros., 1972)
LaBelle - Chameleon (Epic, 1976)
Mary Lou Williams - Mary Lou Williams (aka Black Christ of the Andes) (Folkways, 1964)
Minnie Riperton - Perfect Angel (Epic, 1974)
Portishead - 3 (Island, 2008)
Robyn - Body Talk (Konichiwa/Interscope, 2010)
The Breeders - Pod (4AD, 1990)
The Sundays - Reading, Writing and Arithmetic (Rough Trade/DGC, 1990)
Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes (Atlantic, 1991)
X-Ray Spex - Germfree Adolescents (EMI, 1978)

can't believe I'm leaving off Bjork, Beyonce, and Hole, but:

Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
Sleater-Kinney - The Hot Rock
PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
Pistol Annies - Hell on Heels
Kathleen Edwards - Asking for Flowers
Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark
Donna Summer - Bad Girls
Madonna - You Can Dance
Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville
M.I.A. - Kala

A|A - Grouper
Pretenders - Pretenders
Before the World Was Big - Girlpool
The Big Science - Laurie Anderson
Ys - Joanna Newsom
What Would the Community Think - Cat Power
Visions - Grimes
Live Through This - Hole
Blue - Joni Mitchell
Plastic Ono Band - Yoko Ono

Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
A Girl Called Eddy - A Girl Called Eddy
Dusty Springfield - Dusty in Memphis
Aimee Mann - Magnolia
Grace Jones - Nightclubbing
Dorothy Ashby - Afroharping
Rachel Stevens - Come and Get It
Marianne Faithfull - Strange Weather
Billie Holliday - Lady in Satin
Tracey Thorn - Love and Its Opposites

Bjork - Homogenic
Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Broadcast - Tender Buttons
Susanne Sundfør - Ten Love Songs
Syreeta - Stevie Wonder Presents Syreeta
Saint Etienne - So Tough
Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas
Grace Jones - Nightclubbing
Minnie Riperton Adventures In Paradise
Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part One

I've created a "women in song" playlist if anyone's interested - I could send via transfer.

Don't feel like picking ten, but Throwing Muses debut LP has to be in there somewhere.

Anti

enjoying the way there's no consensus on the Joni Mitchell albums here

The Weather Station - Loyalty
Joni Mitchell - Hejira
Patti Smith - Horses
Madonna - Ray of Light
Judee Sill - Heart Food
Kacey Musgraves - Same Trailer Different Park
Jenny Lewis - The Voyager
case/lang/veirs - s/t
Alice Coltrane - Journey in Satchidananda
Julien Baker - Sprained Ankle

if there was a definitive Billie Holiday album I would include it

really wanted to include Norah Jones - Come Away With Me as well...

xp: just based on our submissions alone, vote-splitting will do a few of these artists in.

Alice Coltrane - Ptah, the El Daoud
Bridget St. John - Songs for the Gentle Man
Grouper - Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill
Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
Judee Sill - Heart Food
Joanna Newsom - Ys
Neko Case - Blacklisted
Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres
Grace Jones - Nightclubbing
Shirley & Dolly Collins - Anthems in Eden

I needs a definitive Dinah Washington album. Maybe Drinking Again?

For sure gave two votes each to Erykah Badu (Mama's Gun + New AmErykah Part One) and Bjork (Homogenic + Vespertine). Laurie Anderson, Kate Bush, Madonna, Chaka Khan and Nina Simone all got a vote and then I'm blanking on the other one.

I think maybe I voted for Amy Grant's Heart In Motion also? maybe I didn't vote for Emmylou Harris, I dunno.

heart in motion was in an earlier draft of my ballot and i should probably put it back in

Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out
PJ Harvey - To Bring You my Love
Joanna Newsom - Ys
Elastica - Elastica
Colleen - The Golden Morning Breaks

Electrelane - Axes
Cat Power - You Are Free
Stereolab - Transient Random-Noise Bursts...
Cocteau Twins - Treasure
Ladytron - Velocifero

ugh i forgot enya

Some voter's remorse already with the Ladytron one, could've put in some Boris or something instead.

Billie Holiday - Ken Burns Jazz
Dolly Parton - The Best of Dolly Parton ('75)
Ella Fitzgerald - Ken Burns Jazz
Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved a Man The Way I Loved You
Girl Group Greats
Joni Mitchell - For the Roses
Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
Madonna - The Immaculate Collection
PJ Harvey - Stories From the City Stories From the Sea
Sleater-Kinney - One Beat

joanna newsom - have one on me
taylor swift - red
rihanna - anti
miranda lambert - platinum
grimes - art angels
dj sprinkles - midtown 120 blues
rilo kiley - more adventurous
grouper - A I A
everything but the girl - walking wounded
chromatics - kill for love

I dunno if I'll actually vote, but here's ten.

The Shangri-Las - Myrmidons of Melodrama
The Slits - Cut
X-Ray Spex - Germfree Adolescents
Cocteau Twins - Victorialand
Björk - Homogenic
Crass - Penis Envy
Joanna Newsom - Ys
SubRosa - More Constant Than the Gods
Tanya Tagaq - Retribution
Lingua Ignota - All Bitches Die

xp i would've put dj sprinkles on mine but from what i've read thaemlitz seems to be genderfluid and/or genderqueer? i mean, she uses she/her pronouns personally (but he/him as sprinkles (not that each has to align w male & female respectively)), but it seemed to me that she at least hasn't embraced the label of "woman." i could v well be wrong obv

yeah i'm super conflicted about that too!! there's an interview with the guardian that kinda unpacks that

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/25/dj-sprinkles-terre-thaemlitz

"The gender lines are blurred –Thaemlitz turns up for our interview wearing “boy drag” and suggests that, if pronouns really have to be used, Terre is “she” and Sprinkles is “he”."

so, an album performed by a man but made by a woman? idk

part of the reason i put it was because of that question mark, though

in an npr piece from 2011: "Thaemlitz doesn't identify as exclusively male or female."

that said, i mean, a large reason why such a "music by women" list exists is bc of the structural and receptive and etc boundaries women in music face, and for a trans not-male person like thaemlitz that v much applies, really more so. but still, idk, i don't quite feel comfortable considering her in this context

absolutely fair. a counter-canon like this one is both a really good opportunity to talk more about an album like this, and also entirely insufficient for properly engaging with it holistically