20180404

Three months in, women crushing music in 2018

It's really no surprise considering the last few years, and The New York Times nailed it with their 2017 story "Women are making the best rock music today". Through the first 100 days of 2018, women are absolutely crushing music.

I have been less connected over the last few months, taking a break from Twitter--my primary avenue for discovering music--and I haven't written on this blog since January. But I realized today I that thus far in 2018 I have really only listened to new music created by women.

Hop Along's Frances Quinlan
Then this week NPR is debuting three incredible new albums in full, one of which is definitively my #1 album of the year so far: Hop Along- Bark Your Head Off, Dog. The other two great albums on NPR's First Listen this week are from indie mainstay Wye Oak and newcomer The Aces. I recommend listening to all of those albums in full while they stream there for free.

I made a Playmoss playlist of my top 10 albums of 2018 thus far (some yet to be released), and all feature primary songwriters or co-writers who are women. It wasn't a reach, it is reality. (Once again, thanks to Playmoss for the ability to make playlists from Bandcamp, along with YouTube and Vimeo tracks.)



Hop Along has been the highlight of 2018 for me musically. Somehow I had never discovered their work until this year, despite their upcoming release on Friday is their 3rd full-length. Hop Along is fronted by singer-songwriter Frances Quinlan. Her lyrics are incredibly clever and I am continuing to explore and understand them on a daily basis. Stereogum published a detailed interview with Frances and her brother Mark, who drums in the band, last week.



Not only did I pre-order Bark Your Head Off, Dog on vinyl, I also purchased their first two albums, 2015's Painted Shut and 2012's Get Disowned, on cassette.

My favorite song from Painted Shut is "Waitress":


And my favorite song from Get Disowned is "Laments". "Laments" is actually my favorite song I have heard in the last three months, and have listened to it almost daily for weeks. I didn't understand the song at first, and it took a while before I finally grasped it's unique perspective.