Female Force

It’s been a long while since I uploaded anything on here. I’ve been writing a lot, and researching new music, but I felt as if that I was rambling on, so those pieces are still half done and probably won’t get finished any time soon.

There hasn’t been nearly enough music released this year to write about so I’ll wait a few weeks, and give artists the time to get stuff out (hopefully). This one’s all about my favourite female artists and how female solo artists or fronted bands have had an influx of popularity, thus a huge range of ace new music from all corners of the globe.

It wasn’t long ago when festival lineups were completely male dominated, and let’s face it, they still are. The large majority of festival headliners are predominantly male fronted bands, as female groups are passed by. Is this to do with radio coverage? Or is the music industry we all know and love still a bit too rooted in its past, and are worried to take that step? Who knows? But times are changing.

It wasn’t until my 7th Glastonbury that a female artist closed the Pyramid Stage. It was in 2011 and my dad couldn’t get the Monday off work so we had to go home on Sunday afternoon. I wasn’t gutted back then, but I’m now absolutely devastated that I missed Beyonce. The first woman I watched headline the Pyramid was Florence and the Machine, and that was only because Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters snapped his leg, but I can confidently say that she was one of the best acts I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. The energy of her whole set, how she interacted with the exuberant crowd and the way she ran around the stage, bare footed and climbing the structures of the stage epitomised Glastonbury to a T. She was boss.

A few years later I sat and watched Adele because I couldn’t be arsed walking 3 miles to another stage. Her set was more like watching Adele stand in for Graham Norton on his Friday night TV show, but she was a laugh. Although, as you can imagine, her music isn’t my go-to.

I saw The White Stripes in 2005 as Meg and Jack White blasted tunes across Pilton but I’m talking more solely female artists.

Emily Eavis has worked wonders in terms of closing that gap, and last year’s lineup, if it had gone ahead, featured 52% female artists, which is clear evidence that times are changing, however when you refer to Reading and Leeds’ 2020 lineup, I can’t recall a single female artist to feature. You’ll get them mings who listen to The Stone Roses and Oasis on repeat piping up claiming that “Women are rubbish at making music, why is it such a problem?” Quite simply, there are countless female artists that are ridiculously talented, but it won’t get the recognition it deserves, and that isn’t fair.

My blog doesn’t get many readers whatsoever, but it’s good to recognise good music, isn’t it? And I think we should be shouting some of these names from the rooftops, because they are *really good*.

We’ll kick off, inevitably, with Arlo Parks. She’s just released her debut album, ‘Collapsed in Sunbeams’, and it could go all year being in the top 5 releases of 2021. She’s got that special something and I’m not even sure how to describe it. Her voice is so soothing and relaxing that it could quite easily send you to sleep after a long day. No, I am not describing her as boring, you’ll just have to take my word for it and listen to it.

My favourite song of hers sadly isn’t on the album but I’ll link it here, because I believe that everyone’s ears should have the privilege of hearing it.

Secondly, I have to talk about Laurel. She released her debut album in 2018 and it’s a treat to the ears from beginning to end. Her voice is so raw yet the accompanying music makes it absolutely perfect. She released a few singles last year and they’re a bit more electronic than her album, but make no mistake, they’re just as good as the aforementioned album, ‘DOGVIOLET’, if not even better. Her album is a lot more stripped back, with her and her guitar and a drum kit.

I saw her in a very small venue in Liverpool towards the end of 2018 and you know you’ve come across someone talented when the live performance sounds just like the songs you hear on Spotify. Those small, intimate gigs are the best and no one can tell me otherwise. No one in there chats in between songs and they’re all there to watch the act they’ve paid money to see.

What I can’t understand is the lack of coverage she gets on the radio. I’ve heard her once on Radio 1, and that was the 11pm show, so nowhere near enough people were listening.

This girl deserves all the praise and as many streams as possible because she literally doesn’t have a bad song. So I’ll link her Spotify playlist and you can listen to why I was hyping her up so much.

My favourite song from her 2018 album is ‘Adored’. It’s a bit more upbeat compared to the rest of the tracks and offers something different. However, the best track she’s released to date is one she brought out in 2020 titled ‘Scream Drive Faster’. Fingers crossed for a second album at some point this year.

My third offering is Irish folk artist Ailbhe Reddy. Another one who has just released her debut album ‘Personal History’ and is filled with personal (hence the name of the record) fears of loneliness, isolation and heartbreak through her own eyes. This portrayal of said fears and experiences is a work of art.

‘Looking Happy’ was heavily played on 6 Music, and is the reason why I still listen to it weekly. Without radio, I wouldn’t have heard of half of the music I listen to today, and that’s why it’s so important to us all, the listeners, and the artists for getting that airtime they deserve.

I’m due to go and see her in Birkenhead towards the end of the year but who knows what’s going to happen this year? And with the incompetence of this Government, I wouldn’t be surprised if the gig was pushed back to 2022. I miss live music more than anything.

Ailbhe Reddy is 100% one to keep an eye on for the future, because a debut record as strong as that is a recipe for an even stronger second album.

The fourth and final female artist is on the complete other end of the musical spectrum to the previous three. Kelly Lee Owens is an electronic musician and producer and again, took the brave step and released her second record last year, in the midst of a pandemic where touring wasn’t possible.

‘Inner Song’, her second album is a follow up of her 2017 self-titled debut album and continues the introspective song-writing that has gathered a lot of plaudits, as well as body-pumping beats. The album opens with the track, ‘Arpeggi’, which, of the Radiohead fans reading this will notice, is part of the title for ‘Weird Fishes’ in ‘In Rainbows’. When I first saw the title of the track, I thought nothing of it but on listening to it I realised that she’d essentially covered the Radiohead track in the form of electronic synthesisers.

The album is perfect to listen to when you’re bored, feeling down or want a bit of an uplift. My small claim to fame is that she lived and grew up 15 minutes down the road from me. She’s now producing award-winning albums and I’m a delivery driver. I’ll get there one day.

Bare in mind that these are just solo artists that I’ve reflected on today. There are female fronted bands that I can listen to all day on repeat. The Orielles, The Big Moon, Khruangbin (their latest album has lyrics), Bessie Turner, who I wrote about last year in one of my Turn of the Decade pieces, Little Simz, Phoebe Bridgers, Katy J Pearson, Jayda G and Martha Hill are just a snippet of female fronted talent about right now, and they, amongst so many others need to be recognised.

Like I’ve reflected on earlier in the post, only in the past few years have female artists and bands started to gain the recognition and airtime they deserve, yet there still seems to be an uphill battle when it comes to festival lineups. Maybe the curators of Reading and Leeds don’t listen to enough music, as there are countless female acts, like in the long list above, out there that would put on a better show than most of their 2019 lineup.

Hope you’ve enjoyed reading this. I’m going to try and write more than I do now, because at the end of the day who’s arsed if it’s uninteresting?

Take it easy, wear a mask.