Tori Amos, PJ Harvey & Bjork

PJ Harvey, Man Size.

Tori Amos, Caught a Lite Sneeze

Bjork, All is Full of Love.

I've never managed to really connect with any of those three, although I do like some songs from Tori and Björk. Currently I think I have two or three songs from either in my digital collection but rarely even remember having them. Kate Bush is the one for me, she's way above those girls. Not saying I don't respect them since I do.

I like Marissa P. of Screaming Females...she's gay, too.

Tori was very important to my development as a gayling. I haven't listened to anything she's put out in years, but I was listening to her early stuff a few months ago and was surprised how good it was.

Kristin Hersh is the First Lady of Indie.

Siouxsie Sioux is legendary.

Here's a new musician from Iceland, Soley. I just discovered her and love her work.

Also from Iceland, singer and song writer Emiliana Torrini.

My secret shame: I'm a major, Sarah Mclachlan fan. No, I'm not a 40-year old, Lesbian farmstander. I know she was the cozier of the Lilith girls but I just want to listen to her voice, all of the time. In the shower, the car, while reading. Her music never stopped being lovely.

I frankly think a lot of their music is overrated, although I was a big fan of Tori in the '90s and I like about 2 1/2 of Bjork's albums. For newer "weird" artists, there is Lykke Li, Soap & Skin, Fever Ray and iamamiwhoami, to name a few. I think they all make great music without "selling prostitution."

LMAO @ "selling prostitution"!!! I don't find Tori weird at all... is that weird?

Polly Jean I get. But the piano chick and the swan-killing Sugar Cube, ick.

PJ Harvey is the only one mentioned here who is actually Rock. Those first two albums (and some of the third and the fifth and sixth) are especially brutal. Relentless riffs, pounding drums, huge dynamic shifts, pure menace. Weird time signatures, too! As exciting as rock and roll gets.

That Emiliana Torrini video posted above is practically the antithesis and the perfect example of how pathetically twee "indie" has become, from the finger-picked, clean guitar sound to the wimpy melody, to the trendy little girl voice singing. Nothing weird about that song, nothing rock about it, either. BLAH.

[quote]I don't find Tori weird at all... is that weird?

Well, this was one of her album covers (and her best album, as far I'm concerned)

Boys for Pele was as weird, crazy, unconventional, daring, scary and utterly beautiful as an album can get. Her work of genius, Choirgirl is pretty harrowing and also amazing.

Love all three.

LOVE. THEM.

Tori was my second concert....after alanis...

I still love her. I wish she didn't do the all the face work though. (Admittedly unflattering photo to follow...she looks ok in some others)

The late Nineties were indeed a great time, OP. What careers they had!

All three of them were very important to my adolescent gayling self. Even though I don't listen to them that often any more their music still means a lot to me. Kate Bush also. It's a shame that there don't seem to be any comparable, modern artists around now.

Kristin Hersh? Fiona Apple? Tori Amos? No artistic comparison to PJ Harvey, Bjork or Cat Power. There are women out there now who are showing great propensity in music - Karen Dreijer-Andersson, Nadine Shaw, Carla Bozulich and Shilpa Ray. Now - HERE'S some real female empowerment! Don't forget the women in Savages and Warpaint.

[quote] Karen Dreijer-Andersson, Nadine Shaw, Carla Bozulich and Shilpa Ray. Now - HERE'S some real female empowerment! Don't forget the women in Savages and Warpaint.

All sounding like watered down versions of 80s bands. Ugh.

Yikes! I hadn't seen Tori's face in years. Why the fuck did she do that?

More current names - Chelsea Wolfe, Bat for Lashes, Joanna Newsom. Not all of them will be everyone's cup of tea, but it's unfair (and extremely ignorant) to dismiss all of them and say that all current female artists "sell prostitution."

R16 I think it's a cool pic with an idea behind it. This reminded me of my mum bringing me to school and playing in the car the cd with Tori looking smashed on a glass, and explaining to me that the pic was done with a scanner.

R19 OMG 😱 NOW I find her weird. Still think she's grand.

Chelsea Wolfe is awesome.

I have to say that apart from Kristin Hersh, (check out Milan from her most recent TM album) who is the only one still making thrilling and brilliant music, the others haven't put anything out good in years, Tori since Chiorgirl, Polly since Stories, Cat since You are Free and Bjork since Vespertine, even though the new album was a return to form.

Another awesome Hersh song, Bath White, this time from 50 Foot Wave, from the demos of yet to be released Night Blooming.

[quote]Yikes! I hadn't seen Tori's face in years. Why the fuck did she do that?

She's gone through periods where she's looked almost Asian.

That is just a bad photo. She looks okay, if not like she used to, in others.

Love those 3! Especially Tori. (Sad that she couldn't "age gracefully" at all.)

Tori's face is MUCH better now. That pic is from 2005-2009.

She does wear a hair piece most all the time now. I think a lace front. She had major thinning hair problems that started around 2002.

LOVE HER BEYOND ANYTHING. Wonderful songwriter and simply the kindest musician to her fans.

Unrepentant Geraldines I would recommend to any lapsed fan. I totally agree about Boys For Pele and From The Choirgirl Hotel. Just stunning works.

Tori's work from 1992 to 2002 was fantastic. Everything from then on has ranged from patchy to nightmarish. I do think Unrepentant Geraldines is her most authentic album in a long time, though. I'm looking forward to the OCR from The Light Princess.

Tori Amos is a sad, pathetic Kate Bush wannabe.

Ugh! I hate ALL of her Kate covers, too!

AND her horrible versions of Stevie Nicks' "Landslide"!

Talentless hack!!!

(R23) Oh, grandma, go back to your Janet Jackson threads.

La Roux - Elley Jackson doing the androgyne thang.

Ok- maybe not in the mainstream acceptance as a "weird" sister, but Amanda Palmer & Dresden Dolls still doing that brand of punk cabaret & some interesting collaborations here & there.

Love all three. I'd offer Saint Vincent, Karen OH of the yeah yeah yeah's as two more

Lykke Li, Bat for Lashes, Shilpa Ray Lizzo, Santogold, Karen O, Peaches, Kate Nash, are all carrying forward the legacy of those three.

Another vote for St. Vincent and also one for Elle King.

I think some of you guys like OP just don't even bother keeping up with new music. You're just stuck in the past and whining you're not getting more of the same. Those three women are great, but there are other fine, adventurous, interesting women artists now.

So glad for the Kristen Hersh love here. Saw TM once in college. Along with Mary's Danish who hasn't kept my interest. But I don't many IRL who even know who she is.

I second Shilpa Ray has some talent.

Shannon Wright is awesome, her album In Film Sound is epic.

Also love St Vincent, Chelsea Wolf ( who's new album was produced by the guy that made St. Vincent) and Sharon Van Etten is pretty cool when she is not too hipsterish.

Why does PJ Harvey take so long making albums? Cat Power too, 5 years in now standard length of time between albums, way too long.

(R43) PJ Harvey has major writer's block and low self-esteem about her creative output. Cat Power has issues with depression.

Tori Amos - God

Cat Power gave birth to her first child in April, I doubt we will hear an album from her for a long time.

PJ Harvey has written a book of poetry out in October. An album release doesn't look likely till next year.

Tori covering PJ Harvey-

Simply amazing.

I can never figure out which in my favourite Tori or Polly? I think Pele and Choirgirl are more important to me, but Rid of Me is simply the greatest album of the 90s and one of my all time favourite albums.

An old friend of mine saw Bjork, Marilyn Manson, Michael Stipe, and Trent Reznor eating at a West Village restaurant in NYC. It was probably twenty years ago, or more.

He said no one in the neighborhood place was even looking at them, let alone bothering them. At some point a woman approached the table and spoke to Bjork. The other three completely ignored her. But Bjork lowered her head and stared at the table, unresponsive.

None of them spoke or moved or looked at the woman, who eventually took a hint (!!!!) and evaporated. I wasn't trying to derail your thread OP. I thought it was a story you'd like.

Funny, r49. I actually met Michael stipe in a bar in Athens, GA in the summer before "out of time" came out. I didn't really think it was him, so my friends dared me to tell the guy he looked like MS. He was nice, and wished us well. I left him alone...was sooo embarrassed. But it was fun.

Tori is the polar opposite of Bjork. Looks fans straight in the eye ( And her eyes are beautiful) And you think you are the only person in the world. Tori is the absolute best to fans. Bjork is clearly a loon who has proven that she will scratch a bitch's eyes out. (The airport). These three women could not be more different. All talented though!

Cat Power had a kid? Yikes. She's got more issues than mere depression — she's a total NUTCASE. Bipolar and, I'm fairly certain, schizoaffective. Not to mention alcoholic tendencies.

She's a great singer, though, and has some great songs.

PJ Harvey - Naked Cousin (Glastonbury 1995)

I've really been into Ex Hex lately, but the band members aren't exactly young so it's probably not what OP's looking for.

I think PJ Harvey's new album is out around October or November. There are very few artists, male or female that can compare with early Harvey. Both Dry and Rid of Me are masterpieces.

Tori's Winter is perhaps the greatest contemporary American song.

R54, love Mary, Magic City is a such a cool album.

PJ Harvey - Long Snake Moan (Glastonbury 1995)

r49, Björk became more guarded and scared in public after Ricardo Lopez. Crazy stalkers can do that to some celebs.

r57, the link isn't working for some reason.

[quote]Over a nearly nine-month period, López made a video diary at his Hollywood, Florida apartment wherein he mused about Björk and various other topics while making a letter bomb rigged with sulfuric acid intended to kill or disfigure the singer. On September 12, López sent the package to Björk's residence in London, returned home and filmed his suicide. His decomposing body, along with his video diary and handwritten diary detailing his plot to kill Björk, were found by Florida police four days later. After viewing the tapes, police contacted Scotland Yard, who intercepted the package without incident.

One of my fav Poly performances, love the campy humour she preforms such a frustrated and angst ridden song with.

PJ Harvey - C'mon Billy

Her new album and the titles of the songs sound really interesting.

Re: the live videos shared upthread, any time PJH (the person) does a song live without playing guitar, it's a waste of a performance. She played almost every guitar part on the first 2 LPs, and all the guitars on Stories From the City... And those are some bitchin' records.

Playing an instrument is always far more impressive than campy theatricality.

She can do both r62.

PJ Harvey - Goodnight (Glastonbury 1995)

Well Joanna Newson has spent the last 5 years recording a disappointing outtake.

R33, please change your bloody tampon.

PJ Harvey - Rid Of Me & Interview (Jay Leno 1993)

Kate Bush is the mother of all of those artists. I actually think Liz Phair's debut demolishes any of the albums by these women, but it's just sad the route her career took (and I like her subsequent output). She could never really be paired with these women, though. She was always really different from them.

No mention of Olivia Newton John?

Tori Amos - Smells Like Teen Spirit (cover)

The Joanna Newsom so g has grown on me, it's funny most people, including journalists, have no idea what Sapokanikan means, it is the settlement that predates Europeans on Manhattan island.

Bump.

Man, Joanna Newsom's new stuff is dire. She was ruined by Andy Samberg.

What about Sarah Harmer? She's from Canada.

Not rock but I also LOVE Beth Gibbons from Portishead

"We Carry On " from the album Third:

Fever Ray, Grimes, Laurel Halo, Holly Herndon

Lots of talented women in music right now, especially the experimental/electronic music.

R74, what about her?

I agree Liz Phair's first album is a great work of art. Aside from being a showcase for one of the best lyricists ever and a severely underrated guitarist, that album has some soundscapes that are utterly unique. Nothing else, before or since, sounds like "Explain It To Me", "Canary", "Shatter", "Flower", "Johnny Sunshine" or "Gunshy". All credit goes to Brad Wood for that.

Her follow-up album was almost as good, but it all went downhill after she got pregnant. She was never a dedicated musician in the way that other lifers are; she had a knack for lyrics and guitar in her early 20s and was surrounded by enough hipsters and smoked enough reefer that her tastes and sensibilities skewed toward the very eccentric. Once all that vanished or took a backseat, her output suffered (or, to be objective about it, her style merely changed drastically.)

R78, I agree Brad probably deserves most of the credit for the production values but have you heard the girlysound demos? I think Brad Wood gave her songs a punk-folk sound, whereas her demos are pure folk. I think Liz was always more of a folk artist at heart, rather than the indie chick her debut and her critics/fans would have one believe. Some of the girlysound version of the Exile songs sound just as good as the ones on the album, and in some cases, even better. "Fuck and Run" is much more devastating in the demo version than the album version (plus, there's that added verse about what the boyfriend wants). Ditto with "Shatter". I think Liz should have demonstrated more of a folk sound on "Whip-Smart" instead of trying to make it sound like a near carbon copy of Guyville.

Bump

PJ Harvey must be really glad that she came out around the time of the alternative grunge rock era even though she was from England. If she came out today it would have been extremely harder the way the music business is nowadays.

I still feel like the 90s was the best time for female artists since the 70s. In the 90s, in rock, pop AND R&B, you had a ton of females who received tons of attention and lots of sales. What the hell happened? I really do think the teen pop boom in the late 90s killed off a lot of that.

Exactly, r82.

What is the hold up with PJ's new album, she recorded it in January, it should have been out by now, but no word on it yet.

R82, females are still making millions in the music business, they're having as much if not more success than their male contemporaries. They're just doing it making really awful music. Across the board, music is pretty awful now, at least if you go by what's on the radio.

The 90s was the last great decade for rock music. There's still a lot of good, real rock music being made but with no chance of mainstream recognition or crossover the way that it happened 20 years ago. This is the worst decade for radio since...ever?

In the grand scheme of things, I think teen pop boom was only a symptom of a much larger phenomenon: the transition of the music scene from artistry to industry.

I have to confess I was very much into that teen pop thing at the time (Britney, Christina...) and I loved Tori Amos (still do btw) but I wished both musical scenes could have co-existed instead of one pretty much extinguishing the other.

R85, that's exactly it. They are making tons of money making shitty music. In the 90s, there were so many talented female artists.

R86, I hated teen pop even when I was in middle school (when Britney Spears came on the scene), and I still hate it today (except for Pink who outlasted all of them). That point you made is spot on. I think the transition from artist to industry also ties in with the increasing prominence of music producers (like Timbaland and Dr. Dre).

After 9/11 came a period of anti-intellectualism in America, the nostalgia and sentiment for old fashion right wing values took root in the sorrow and pain in flowing years. The 90s scene of alt music; of questioning and rebelling against right wing values was squashed. It was replaced by a hybrid of a right wing sensibility; passive aggressive racism / blackploitation and graphic sexual heteronormative sexism. That is pretty much what we are left with today.

Yes, R88, I think that is exactly correct. Fucking horrible time for popular culture now, not just music. Stupidity reigns. Maybe the tide will turn again?

Bjork is the only one who is talented and genuinely creative.

Tori & PJ are incredibly dry, and Kate Busch? Pleaseeee her vocal technique sucks and the music itself isn't unique in any way.

Bjork hasn't done anything talented and genuinely creative since 2000, maybe she redeemed herself with her new album, but Tori and Polly are hugely talented., granted neither has done anything great since 2000 too, but their 90s work is insuperable.

Bjork has consistently put out creative and diverse albums, with that being said you lose people when you constantly change and explore but she's definitely always put out good bodies of work within the range of the genres she was in.

Tori and Polly were always just lame posers/coattail riders. Some vocal talent? maybe. Creative talent? absolutely not.

R92 = Courtney Love trying to come to terms and throwing shade to make herself feel better.

LOL seriously, R93.

This whole thread is a tribute to some great talent that got by largely on that - talent. Suzanne Vega deserves to be mentioned, too.

Bjork <3

R93 You shaming some washed up addict doesn't change the fact that Tori and Polly are just a couple of hacks.

Bjork has put out albums that are straight-up unlistenable, and does a whole lot of weird and pointless shit in the name of "creativity." Just because it's bizarre doesn't make it good. She is the definition of hit-and-miss.

Tori and PJ are hit-and-miss as well, but I don't think they are lesser than Bjork just because they aren't try-hard freaky "artists."

" ...Winter, Dress, Yoga, Your Ghost, Metal Heart or Shadow Boxer. "

Sorry, never heard of any of 'em.

Art is subjective. What I like about Bjork is that she challenges me. I love PJ Harvey's Is this Desire album from the 90s and I love Tori Amos' Night of Hunters (not to mention other albums like From the Choirgirl Hotel).

R97 Tori & PJ are the epitome of try hard.

Do we have a BjorkBot now?

Does this mean that a ToriBot will rise up to challenge her and get into multiple threads with increasingly tiring sniping back and forth?

Lol. Fuck Tori Amos and her unicorn psycho babel . People still like Fiona Apple.

R101 BotBot has entered the thread.

Sinead O'Connor often gets dismissed, but her debut album The Lion and Cobra is still a startling and epic, intensely beautiful album.

R104 yeah Sinead's talent is often overlooked due to her reputation.

R104 and R105, do you think Sinead's first cd is better than I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got? I feel like the latter cd was more acclaimed at the time of its release than now.

I think so r106, The Lion and The Cobra is a more left field and uncompromising album, I Do Not Want is a bit AOR. I wasn't around for her first time, in fact her first album was released a year before I was born , so I only knew her from her reputation and Nothing Compares To You, and I thought she was not totally mainstream, but just off center. Then I was recommend her first album and was really taken by it.

There are great versions of Sinead singing Troy live around. Especially in one version her screaming at the end sends shivers down my spine.

[quote]and Kate Busch? Pleaseeee her vocal technique sucks and the music itself isn't unique in any way.

Bitch please. I don't usually get into pissing matches but this time I make an exception. I mean, I don't even... I just, I mean, what? Are you on crack?

R108 There will be no pissing match. She's a bore. End of story.

Tori had an amazing run of flawless to nearly flawless albums in the 90s: Little Earthquakes (92), Under The Pink (94), Boys For Pele (96), From the Choirgirl Hotel (98), To Venus and Back (99). It's a shame her output since the turn of the century has been so spotty and lackluster by comparison and I say that as a dyed in the wool fan of hers.

I love Bjork (especially 93-01) and I really like some of PJ's albums, but Tori will always be my favorite.

Fiona Apple still gets nominated for grammy's. These bitches are "where are they now" whores.

R110 yes those 4 bjork albums during that run are amazing. The production on Homogenic is so crazy, it's hard to think it came out in the 90s. definitely ahead of the curve.

Homogenic still sounds futuristic and ahead of the curve 18 years later. Brilliant album by any measure.

Fiona Apple is great too, but she seems perpetually plagued with self-doubt and personal demons which seem to limit her ability to create and release new music. Such a shame because she's fiercely talented.

Who is Tori Stamos? is that Johns wife?

Chelsea Wolfe is doing some pretty awesome stuff right now.

3 girls from Sleater Kinney

R115 R116 I see why neither of those artists are chart toppers.

Just be glad that Tori Amos, Bjork and PJ Harvey don't have to compete with the younger female singers who can't sing worth a crap. They were lucky to come out at the right time before Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, and Mandy Moore.

R118 Is it fair to lump in Aguilera? I dont care for her but she does have vocal prowess. I just hate her gymnastics and overkill.

R119, agreed. Jessica Simpson can sing too--she just has no vocal personality at all (whereas Aguilera has too much of it).

Ugh. No. NO. Just stop. OP was good enough to make a thread about Bjork, PJ and Tori and you pollute it with Aguilera and Jessica Simpson chatter? Agree with most of you:

TORI: Had a brilliant run in the 90s, but middle age and motherhood have perhaps mellowed her out to a snoozefest. There's so little fire in her music anymore. I've given up hope that she'll ever release something as strong as her early work.

BJORK: It can be easy to forget that Bjork was a genuine pop star at one point. She still sells well - both albums and, especially, tours - but she's not near the height of her fame in the 90s. It kind of saddens me that there doesn't seem to to be room for left-of-center, slightly kooky, wholly original pop stars anymore. Bjork was a pop star, Bowie was a pop star. If they were starting out today, I think they'd still be successful, but they'd never enter mainstream consciousness the way they did in their days. It's not that there isn't good music still being made today - of course there is - it's that the mainstream has become so homogenized. I'm having a hard time getting into her latest album, but I had a hard time with Biophilia as well -- UNTIL, I saw her perform most of the album at the Hollywood Bowl. It was in that live setting that those gorgeous songs finally opened themselves up to me. What had seemed inpeneterable and opaque came alive as some of her most adventurous and sophisticated songwriting.

PJ: Unlike Tori, I think PJ has held onto her magic throughout her career. What I find so startling about PJ is how different each album sounds from the last and, yet, how undeniably PJ Harvey'ish they all are. Despite the different vocal styles, arrangements, production, songwriting styles - they never feel like costumes or affectations. LET ENGLAND SHAKE was a god damn masterpiece and a well deserved second Mercury Prize. I can't wait to hear the new one.

Roisin Murphy: Will just briefly mention that I think Roisin Murphy, former lead singer of Moloko, and reigning Irish queen of arty pop music is someone who deserves a bigger audience and, had she started out in the 80s or early 90s, might have been a much bigger star. I can't believe she's never toured the US.

R121 I think Bjork left the mainstream pop realm on purpose. Not to say that she is "too good" for pop or that was even her intention because she has said in interviews she hates musical snobbery.

I just that she doesn't place confines on what kind of music she makes and if she has an idea she likes she will follow suit even if its something that wont necessarily reach mainstream audiences. but the Fanbase remains loyal and still purchases for the most part. You mention Biophillia as being hard to get into but personally I didn't have much trouble especially with the Remix album.

For me to this day Medulla is her most challenging album for me, I think its an amazing concept with the majority of the music being vocal and everything but it still doesn't appeal to me, I do enjoy how she remixed some of the songs in music videos though.

To me Björk comes off as somone who doesn't care about other people's, or her fans', demands but instead satisfies her own curiosity when it comes to her creative output. In that regard I believe she is very similar to Tori Amos (the first time I heard Night of the Hunters I was like WTF???? But now it's probably my most favorite album of hers) and another female artist, Siouxsie Sioux (who got her ass out of retirement, after almost eight years, and recorded a song for the Hannibal finale with the show's music composer Brian Reitzell).

My apologies when it sounds condescending but music that is in the charts is, for the most part, intended to be sold to as many people as possible and for that is has to be easy and accessable. There is nothing wrong to make something that a lot of people like, but what bothers me is that there is this kind of dismissive notion towards artists like Björk who have the audacity to do their own thing on their own terms.

R123 Joni Mitchell is another one who went on to make more experimental music at the cost of mainstream success. and I quite liked her experimentations as well. The Hissing Of Summer Lawns is one of my favorite albums but it seems like people wanted her to stay in the niche Pop-Folk range.

I like when artists experiment, but I do wish that we could get another pop record out of these kind of artists even if I love their experimental work.

Neko Case deserves a mention, her voice is epic and she makes the most gorgeous country noir.

Poe - Hey Pretty

Björk - Stonemilker

oh jeezum crowe Tori Amos was ugly as homemade sin before she finally had some facework done. No wonder everyone was so ready for Britney Spears after having to look at these hags for years. Add to this- the hideousness that is Allanis M.

The new Bjork album, Vulnicura is absolutely brilliant. I had given up on her after Medula, but I am so glad I gave this album a listen. Fucking beautiful.

Neko Case is my favorite singer-songwriter of all time, but I don't think she's doing quite what Tori, Fiona, or PJ was doing. She has a calm and minimalist (albeit hypnotic) stage presence as opposed to a fiercely passionate, manic one. For me, that places Neko in a different league, perhaps alongside Jenny Lewis or Eleanor Friedberger.

I love Martha Wainwright and I'd say she's taking cues from the Trio.

Anyone here like Agnes Obel? She's more on the quieter/softer side, but reminds me a bit of early Tori and Fiona.

The father, the son, and the holy ghost to my 90s self. I've seen all three in concert and they were all spectacular, but Polly Jean - I am her bitch forever. Unlike Tori and Bjork, PJ Harvey has been consistently great with every album. It's hard to pick a favorite work from her because it depends on my mood, or the day of the week, which one I'll be most drawn to.

I wanted to like Joanna Newsom after all the Tori comparisons, but ugh, that voice. Tori's recording output has been uneven since 2000, and she's long had issues with annoying vocal mannerisms, but at least the voice is beautiful. PJ's is also lovely, in a lower range.

Bumping this thread because I've just been listening to the OCR of Tori's musical, The Light Princess. It's much less dark than I was expecting, pretty twee in places. But for the most part, I'm enjoying it. My favourite track so far is "Better Than Good".

RID of ME remains one of my all time favorites of all time. Bought it the day it came out (cd), put in in my Celica (hello, 90's!) and listened to it on auto repeat, EVERY DAY, for over a year. Never took it out. Still listen to it once or twice a year now and am blown away. PJ Harvey is astounding to this day.

Tori is a Kate Bush copy

Major excited. Harvey is back.

Thanks for sharing that, R137.

I haven't kept up with PJH since the rather lackluster Uh Huh Her (and the tour she barely played guitar during), but I agree with the poster a few inches above about Rid Of Me. That album will never not sound absolutely brutal and thrilling.

And thank YOU, R138 for bumping. I missed R137's update. So exciting. I am READY for a new PJ Harvey album. R138, I agree that Uh Huh Her was lackluster, but it did feature the absolutely killer track "The Letter". And she followed it with the absolutely BRILLIANT 'Let England Shake' album for which she won her well-deserved second Mercury Prize. If you haven't heard it, I highly recommend you catch up. It's one of the best things she's done.

I think Uh Huh Her was he anti Stories album. She seemed not to be happy with the clean sound of the album so made something very lo-fi, but to me it seemed like ab-sides and demos,totally unfinished. It's weird as much as i disliked Stories when it came out, now it stands with Dry and Rid of Me as he best work.

Alex Borstein as Björk

Kristin Hersh also has a new album out this year, again released as a a book including the cd, "Wyatt at the Coyote Palace

Torres album SPRINTER is produced by PJ Harvey producer Rob Ellis .

Perhaps it's just me, but 'Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea' really took on an eerie resonance after 9/11. Brilliant album regardless.

It's not just you, R144. Of course, PJ Harvey would have no way of knowing how her album would resonate after 9/11, but I think the album will forever be linked with that strange, unsettling time in NY. As you may know, she was unable to attend the Mercury Prize awards in London, where she would win the big prize for 'Stories from the City, Stories from the Seat' because she was stuck in the US on 9/11 and, of course, unable to fly out of the country. It is, by far, my favorite of her albums. It's absolutely brilliant from start to finish - not an ounce of fat.

This video is so simple, but I've always found it so captivating. Especially from 2:40 on. The way her voice echoes - it's just so seductive.

r145, I just love that song and video and album...it was such a moment and timeless at the same time.

Rob Ellis is her drummer (and WHAT a drummer!), not her producer.

Stories from the City is her second classic (the first one is Rid of Me). Dry has its great moment, but as a whole, it sounds unfinished to me, and it sounds like a warm up for Rid of Me.

The sound of Dry kind of bugs me. There's no reverb whatsoever on the vocals (that I can recall); the percussion can be too trebly at times and overtake the song. Plus it's mastered at a really low level, so you've got to crank it. But I really appreciate most of the songs (I never need to hear "Happy and Bleeding" again, though). Who could live without "O My Lover", "Joe", "Dress", "Sheela-Na-Gig"? That's classic, essential PJH.

Someone up thread mentioned UHH being lo-fi. I don't particularly recall it sounding like that (like she recorded on cassette, which is literally what lo-fi means, although so few people understand that nowadays that the term might as well not even mean that anymore), but I dug up an interview with her where she said she'd done the demos herself and then basically got Rob Ellis to add drums.

I couldn't really get into that album she did with John Parish, but THIS song was the exception. Love it.

R144, You Said Something, certainly has a strong feeling to it, I think some silly people though it better that she didn't play the song live around that time.

I also remember her duet with Thom Yorke being the first time I recalled hearing him...loosen up that much. An almost soulful (by Oxford, UK based Yorke standards) vocal from him. And, interestingly, I think if anyone else had written that song, it would have been the female vocalist singing the Yorke vocal and the man singing Harvey's.

[quote]Rob Ellis is her drummer (and WHAT a drummer!), not her producer.

Rob Ellis is a highly talented individual! Perhaps most widely acknowledged for his work with PJ Harvey with whom he has worked as a PRODUCER, arranger and musician since 1990, Rob PRODUCED and arranged the band's debut album 'Dry' and as well as providing drums/keys/guitars and vocals he also co-wrote 2 of the songs. He then went on to work with Polly on most of her albums including the critically acclaimed and Mercury Prize award-winning 'Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea' which he co-PRODUCED and provided both drums and keyboards for.

Oh, yeah, R153, I forogot that "PJ Harvey" is technically a band which Polly Jean Harvey fronts. Which really is bullshit. No one is referring to a band when they say "PJ Harvey". Same thing for Sade.

Exile in Guyville always kind of reminded me of Dry for some reason (and the Girlysound Demos remind me of 4 track demos).

If anyone is irked by the mastering of Rid Of Me, some guy put up private remaster of each song on youtube. Worth checking out.

Also an awesome cover of Cornflake Girl by Lyla Foy.

I cannot tell you how much life this cover of PJ's by Tori gives me. Stunning. Amazing vocal.

I have never understood the Tori Amos copying Kate Bush thing either- I adore them both!!!

And they could not be more different to me. Am I fucking crazy?

Ashe may be more of a novelty than others, but I think Shannon Shaw of Shannon and the Clams takes up the indie rock mantle pretty well.

Love all three.

One of their farts is more interesting and melodic than the likes of Lana del Rey, or Florence "SHIIIIIIIIIPPPPPP! TO WRECK!!!!!!!!!!" whatsersnatch.

[quote] I couldn't really get into that album she did with John Parish, but THIS song was the exception. Love it.

She did two. The first one's a bit more interesting, the second a bit more dense, but Black Hearted Love is the best, you are correct.

I'm guessing Tori might also have a new album out this year, she releases an album every two years, her last album was 2014, so maybe.

R153, no one familiar with PJH thinks of Ellis as her "producer". Please note that while he—along with Harvey herself!—is credited with CO-producing Dry, it was obviously Head who did the actual engineering, recording, and mixing. I'm not sure what you think a producer does , either in the broader sense or just in the case of PJH. Certainly Ellis had a hand in arranging the songs along with Harvey, but he is not a PRODUCER per se in the same way that Head or Flood or Steve Albini are. Those guys are recording engineers.

As far as shaping the songs, arranging them the way they appear on the album, Ellis is a drummer (no doubt he wrote his own drum parts with Harvey making suggestions along the way) and a co-arranger—certainly not the main architect.

You really think Polly Harvey isn't the mastermind behind her own albums?

Didn't the "band " break up b/c Ellis and Harvey had a massive fight and stopped speaking for a long time, I think it was almost 10 years.

By the time of To Bring You My Love Harvey was pretty much a solo artist. Even though Ellis' vocals on RoM, "lick my legs I'm on fire, lick my legs I'm desire," are a highlight on the album.

I'd be great if Amos allowed another person to produce here work, it is the probably the reason her albums are so bad, she needs an external force in the studio.

HUGE fan of Tori, and must say that her latest album Unrepentant Geraldines was excellent. But damn I agree with R165.

Songs like Unrepentant Geraldines (the song) and Bouncing Off Clouds should have been MAJOR hits, I can imagine in my mind the most amazing arrangements of those songs. Its all there!

And new producer could kick her ass!!

Tired 90's bitches.

Fiona Apple is the best

Love Fiona, R168. Hope we get another album from her soon.

R167, I would love to hear some recommendations from you.

I love this thread and that it's evolved into a discussion of our favorite independent-minded women of music. With that in mind, any Roisin Murphy fans? Her 2015 album Hairless Toys, her first solo album in nearly a decade, was maybe my favorite album of 2015. Her brilliant, obscure-reference-heavy, self-directed videos for the singles made it a true audio-visual experience.

This was my favorite...

This one casts such a spell...

...and, finally, she wrote this gorgeous, haunting song about the beautiful boys and girls of New York's ball scene, featured in Paris is Burning...

R48 - Tori is your favorite, Polly is who you think is "better." Subjective vs. objective.

Polly is imo the best of anyone mentioned. I LIKE Cat Power the best though.

I almost think lady Gaga stole Roisin 's career, around the time of Overpowered she was far ahead in terms artistic creditability (both stylistically and musically) and just before Lady Gaga's came of the scene. with a sorta SNL parody, over blown attention seeking calculated cynical caricature of a pop star. By the time of her second album she did not have the skill from keeping the gag from going too far.

Frazey Ford's song Done is just awesome, plus brilliant powerful video, especially love the washing your dirty linen in public opening scene. This is really female empowerment, and owning of ones sexuality, someone should pass it on to Pitchfork who still think Beyonce and Rhianna are actually great female role models and credible and talent female artists.

Tired and all washed up

R178, PLEASE recommend new musicians!

Nina Nastasia is excellent, The Blackened Air is one the best albums of the 00s, sadly she seemed to retire in 2010.

Stina Nordenstam, also retired in 2004.

R179, Jane weaver, Julia Holter, Grimes, Anna Calvi

I loved Bjork in the 90s but can't stand her twee autistic elf child vocalizations any more. Sinead for the win!

R183, I can't stand Bork anymore either.

Yes to Roisin Murphy - Hairless Toys was my album of the year.

Nina Nastasia isn't retired. I saw her playing at the Bell House in Brooklyn a few months ago as an opener for R.Ring (a Kelley Deal band). She played new songs. I think she's just sporadic, or maybe taking more time on this next album.

That is awesome to hear R186.

Shannon Wright's harrowing and blistering album Over the Sun was recorded by Steve Albini like Rid of Me, but he gave it a fatter, denser sound. He seemed to master Rid of Me so low. Sometimes I rather listen to 4 Tracks to get a fuller sound.

LICK MY LEGS! I'M ON FIRE!

I think my favorite Harvey album is Desire? My favorite Amos album is Pele and Bjork; Homogenic.

Albini didn't master Rid Of Me, R188.

To get a fuller sound out of Rid Of Me, simply turn up your volume.

[quote] Nina Nastasia isn't retired. I saw her playing at the Bell House in Brooklyn a few months ago as an opener for R.Ring (a Kelley Deal band). She played new songs. I think she's just sporadic, or maybe taking more time on this next album.

Wow, I'm very glad to hear that. I saw her play in, I think, 2006 on a lark. I'd heard a few songs a friend sent and I liked them well enough. I went out to see a band play, but the show was sold out. She was playing that night as well and I was in the mood to see live music so I went. It was one of the best shows I've ever seen. She's been quiet for so long that I wondered if she just quit or something was wrong. How was the show? Did she play any new material?

R128, what are you talking about? Tori was beautiful throughout the 90s and through her Scarlet Walk album. She had bad face work in the early 00s.t

R126, Poe's music was brilliant but she completely fell off the map. I know that the given reason is an ugly record company dispute, but I don't think even the worst of disputes would keep an artist unable to release for 15 years. She's been promising for the last few years that she's ready to release something soon.t Anyone else a big fan of hers?

Joanna Newsome sounds like 5 drowning cats being raped by a dog. She sucks more than Tore My anus. Shit is awful.

Tori was never beautiful, cut the crap.

Grimes is awesome!

R193, the show was great. She talked a lot and told a LONG story about a show she'd seen recently (earlier that day?) on a nature channel. Something about a mother leopard deciding to help a kangaroo or something. My memory is fuzzy. It was funny.

She played a lot of new songs. A few of them were very short.

I feel sorry for you, r195. You're missing out on some great music. But yes, Joanna's voice isn't for everyone.

Torn anus is sooo tired. I used to like her but I can't stomach her anymore.

It sounds like her voice is sore here, but I love this song.

Joanna Newsom sounds like a cat being sodomized with a Pixy Stik.

Joanna Newsom is one of the few people who can say that her voice actually improved after she got nodes.

Obviously not a solo artist, but I always found Mimi Parker's vocals some of the purest, most beautiful in music.

Vocally Bjork shits on all of these hags.

[quote] Vocally Bjork shits on all of these hags.

I love Bjork, but (a) you're fucking wrong and (b) Peej, Bjork and Tori are radically different and impossible to compare.

Now run and listen to some Laura Marling or something. That hag sounds like she's having a four hour abortion every time she opens her maw.

R206 Honey please shut the hell up with your nonsense, while you may stylistically prefer Polly or Tori and that is your right (too bad boring frau music isn't illegal) there is no comparing them with Bjork vocally. She is literally a powerhouse, the other girls can sing but not with the same power or range that Bjork does.

Did some queen seriously just call PJ HARVEY "boring frau music"?

What a clueless DOUCHE.

Truth hurts doesn't it? Pj Harvey is for pretentious eldergays and their obese hags to idolize. That hag is a bore.

Actually r209 Bjork is much more mainstream and widely known in pop culture than Harvey, out the the 3 Harvey is the most alternative and daring. It's too obvious you are just trolling, be more subtle next time.

Cat Power was may favorite, but she's gone a bot too urban hipster hop lately. Sun was horrible.

R210 Bjork may be the most well known but that doesn't automatically make her less daring (what dumb logic) Bjork has consistently been experimental and introducing new sounds with each project she comes out with while PJ just stagnates in her dated Folk Rock style. Jesus you all make a thread about 3 artists but only talk about 2 of them, and when I come and give Bjork her proper respect you act like a whiny little queen.

No love for my witchy Mom, Johnette Napolitano? I think she's less pressed about what others think of her than any of these three. Last I heard from her she was ranching horses somewhere West and singing with up-and-coming bands in her area. She's a class act with a great voice.

I absolutely agree Harvey made a series of underwhelming albums, and her 00s output does not compete with her 90s, but the same can be said for both Amos and Bjork. But being experimental doesn't mean the albums were good, both Volta and Biophilia were not good. There is a skill in being experimental yet never letting the song get away from you, on Biophilia Bjork simply wasn't able to do that. And Medúlla was simply a bad record.

Sadly for me, Amos suffered worst. And her 00s was close to appalling. Especially for an artist who delivered 4 masterpieces and 2 other brilliant albums.

I think all 3 lost their spark after the century turned.

I didn't like Biophilia or Volta but Vulnicura was truly a great album when I was least expecting it from Bjork which puts her way above the other 2 as far as their current projects. Mind you I never even said that simply being Experimental was good, someone else tried to make the argument that Bjork wasn't Experimental when I was only talking about her vocal power (which again doesn't make sense) so I countered that point because Bjork has always been Experimental (wether I cared for it or not)

Debut - Post - Homogenic - Vespertine - Vulnicura. 5 solid albums from Bjork is more than any of the other girls mentioned in this thread have to show for is all im saying.

I think some, well most of Debut has not aged well at all, while Homogenic is still pretty much flawless and startling.

I wondered WHET Fiona Apple. A Google search turned up a little but not much going on, I suppose. I think her breakup with PTA and her dog's death really did her in; someone heckled her at a 2013 concert about her weight and it greatly affected her.

Apple usually only makes an album once every 7 years. And every record has the possibility of being her last record.

Apple is very suspect of releasing shit material and calling it good.

You just called PJ Harvey "folk rock". Let's think about that for a moment...

I don't think you're really all that familiar with PJH's music. You're just some silly mincing queen. I can see—and hear—you now.

And who are you calling "eldergays"? How old are YOU?

R219 What a hyperdefensive queen you are.

Fiona doesn't release shit music. Her albums are critically lauded, she's usually nominated for a Grammy each album release. Bjork is still relevant, and Amos is well, still putting out stuff. Harvey really hasn't made a splash since the Thom Yorke duet.

Fi also has since moved on from PTA and has toured for the Idler wheel and The Watkins Family Hour. She was married briefly to a French photographer. She appears happy, and looks healthier then 2012.

Has everyone forgotten about Kate Bush?

Re: Harvey not making a splash since "the Thom Yorke duet". I haven't loved everything PJ Harvey's done - 'White Chalk' left me cold -but 'Let England Shake' was critically lauded and probably her strongest album since 'Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea'. She received her fourth Mercury Prize nomination for the album - more than any artist - and when she won the prize she became the first artist to win twice. The album was also listed as the #1 album of that year by 16 music critics - giving her more #1 placings than any other artist/album and the album appeared in the top 10 of virtually every best of list of note. In the indie music world, I'd call that a splash.

Re: Biophilia - I was cold on the album as well - UNTIL I saw her perform it in its entirety (along with a few older hits) at the Hollywood Bowl. It wasn't until I heard the songs in a live setting with a gorgeous female choir and strange, beautiful projections of the moon and nature behind her, that I 'got' this album. It was the aural equivalent of watching a rosebud open in one of those timelapse videos we've all seen. "Ohhhhhh, THAT'S what it sounds like." After that, I never heard the album in the same way and I recognized that what seemed deliberately arty and obtuse was actually an album featuring some of her most subtle, sophisticated songwriting to date.

While i'm pretty indifferent towards Biophilia, I loved the remix album of it "Bastards" it's like an album of it's own really it manages to take Biophilia apart and construct something entirely different. I especially love the "Death Grips" remixes, but I figure most people on here wouldn't care for the harsh Industrial Rock style production from them.

I wasn't aware that "the Thom Yorke duet" was a "splash".

(In other words, it wasn't. It was an album track.)

I don't agree that it was the last time PJ Harvey made a "splash", but I do think that the Yorke duet made one - at least in the indie/alternative scene. It's hard to not overstate how huge Radiohead were at that time with the 1-2 punch of OK Computer and the recently released Kid A and Amnesiac albums. This was before Thom cut loose somewhat on subsequent albums. It was quite startling and surprisingly effective to hear Thom crooning a full-on, unironic love song.

OK Computer is so overrated, like What is the Story Morning Glory, maybe they have just dated and were very much of there timey. In a recent greatest albums of all time OK had fell down to 20, while Harvey's Let England Shake was placed at 14.

R228, no kidding. Oasis first two albums were good, but they were NOT that great. In fact, Suede, Blur and many other bands were far superior to Oasis. And I don't get the critics that compared Oasis to The Beatles. What were they on?! Regarding albums slipping rankings, there are some 90s albums that have slipped but sometimes it has more to do with the artists themselves than the albums. Exile in Guyville is a case in point. And that's a shame, because that truly is one of the 10 best 90s records (in my opinion). Liz had a few good/great songs after her debut, but she could never follow up on her debut officially and she even called her debut album "shit" at one point.

If I recall were actually the break through indie band before Blur or Oasis. The London Suede and Dog Man Star are vastly superior to Oasis or Blur records, but they got shoved aside in the embarrassing ridiculousness of cool Britannia and the Oasis vs Blur war.

Their 93 Brit award performance to a shocked and stoney audience is still awesome to watch.

Happy Rhodes is a very underrated vocalist with a 4-octave range. At the high end of the register she sounds remarkably like Kate Bush, and shares some of her prog influences, but I would not call her a copycat by any means. Her songwriting is terrific...I prefer her to Tori (although I do like Tori's older stuff). I don't know if she will ever put out another album, it's been years...anyone know what she is up to now?

Who is the scary singer that use to burn magazines she found objectionable on stage, I think was pretty dark and Gothic.

Do we have a queen of darkness on DL? I'd like to hear the consensus on that one. Female singers only.

After some drawn out searching, Diamanda Galas.

[quote]Do we have a queen of darkness on DL?

Old school: Siouxsie Sioux

New school: Karin Dreijer Andersson (Fever Ray/The Knife)

[quote] "the Thom Yorke duet"

Wow. What a blast from the past. It was used in the end credits of one of the final episodes of Showtime's Queer as Folks.

Nina Perrson was, I guess still is, hyper cool. She was also one of the hottest chicks in music.

Souxsie's imagery was a lot more dark than her music was, I'm thinking more of somebody with a dark sound.

r238, songs like Nightshift, Tattoo, and Vodoo Dolly beg to differ but yeah, the singles Siouxsie and the Banshees are known for are mostly fluffy New Wave pop songs.

Jarboe is pretty damn dark

I always figured if Chrissie Hynde and Nick Cave had a kid, she'd be Johnette Napolitano!

Johnette? WHO?

Johnette Napolitano of the band Concrete Blonde. They are southern-Gothic/Western blended with dark folk-pop, her voice is raw in colour.

She's also cool as Hell.

Toni Halliday is a dark chick, but she's is more on the cybergoth/techno/shoegaze side, she doesn't do the folksy, balladic stuff of these others. I like her work with Curve, it's chilly and hoarse but it shreds like nothing else. She's got this cool 21st century Goddess aura about her.

This thread reminded me of Katie Jane Garside (apparently Suede's "Metal Mickey" is about or inspired by her). I never listened to Daisy Chainsaw, but I did enjoy some of the stuff she did with Queen Adreena. I love her screaming, "Answer the fucking phone!", in this song.

There is a Siouxsie Sioux documentary on Youtube I've never seen before. It might be interesting for some guys who are interested in the topic of female artists who put their own personal stamp on Post Punk, Rock, New Wave, and Pop.

[quote] ([R43]) PJ Harvey has major writer's block and low self-esteem about her creative output. Cat Power has issues with depression.

AKA Lesbian Drama

Carla Bozulich is raw and brilliant, her back catalog, especially the Evangelista albums are amazing.

One for her Evangelista projects.

Also shout out for Thalia Zedek, one the most influential artists you never heard her.

The most talented of the three is certainly Tori Amos. Bjork can also be amazing, when she is not overdoing it. The same goes for PJ Harvey...

R230, this is one of the best live recordings I've seen.

R250 I love Thalia Zedek, particularly her output with Come. eleven:eleven is one of my top albums of all time. I have to admit I've found her more recent solo stuff kind of patchy.

Bori Amos

Yessssss Nina Persson is my favorite, the last couple of Cardigans albums were soooo phenomenal, I really need a new album from them dammit. Her solo work has some good stuff too but there's a little of the spark missing - her writing gets a little indulgent without the band, I guess is what I mean. They kept her on point.

Lesbos that have slept with men. Great singers.

I can't say that I listened to Tori extensively but I was familiar with her singles and a friend practically forced me to listen to the entirety of Under The Pink and I just don't see the appeal. Not to say she has no talent because she obviously does, it just doesn't manifest itself in any original or interesting way.

So many people here give Tori credit (and deservedly) for her work in the 90s but are completely disregarding her work in the 2000s. Sure, her releases in the last 15 years have been uneven but give credit where it's due. To start with, Scarlet's Walk (2002) was a downright masterpiece. It's a concept album that worked on every level and it has some of her best written songs. The entire cd feels like the greatest road trip across the states which is exactly what she was going for. And then to end with Gold Dust? Epic. Ok, then came The Beekeeper (2005) which was admittedly a little bland though it still has some very good songs. American Doll Posse (2007) is one I don't get the hate for. I loved it. I loved "rockin" Tori....Body & Soul is one of my fave songs by her ever. The cd as a whole can be cut down a bit and the production on some songs isn't great, but there are so many amazing songs on it. I probably listen to this more than I do any of her other albums. Abnormally Attracted to Sin (2009) is weird. There are a few songs that are pure classic Tori (Ophelia, Lady in Blue), a few songs that are experimental and sound like they're from the Venus sessions (the title track, Starling, Give), and there are a few that are the worst songs she's ever recorded (500 Miles, Not Dying Today, Mary Jane should not even exist). But the good songs are so good that I can't discount this cd. I can listen to the title track all day on a loop. Where she lost me is when she went into classical mode. And I can listen to classical music. Just not hers. I was horrified when she released the Gold Dust cd, versions of her older songs with a classical twist. The production on it was so awful I just couldn't even get through it. Thankfully she ditched that for Unrepentant Geraldines (2014). Oysters is one of the most beautiful songs she's ever recorded. Omg I can't get enough of that song. I saw her twice on that last tour and she honestly sounded better than she ever has. It gives me hope that she still has more in her. I can't wait for more music from her. As uneven as some of her cds are, there are always some gems. Tori is a creative genius. There is no one like her.

Iggy Azalea kind of looks like Tori, no wonder I always thought that girl was hideous

From the women you mentioned, only Cat Power seems straight to me.

"The one I like is better than the one you like, therefore I am better than you."

They're all straight. What the hell is wrong with you people?

Straight my ass. They are lesbians who keep on sleeping with men. They just can't trust women.

R263, what evidence do you have to support this extraordinary claim?

R264, if PJ Harvey, Tori Amos and Bjork seem straight to you, i rest my case.

Bjork is up for a Grammy this year, she's been nominated a shitload of times but hasn't won yet. Will this be her year?

She could, R266. The 2nd-tier categories at the Grammys are kinda weird in that everyone gets to vote for the major categories (record, album, song of the year, best new artist) and then have to choose the 2nd-tier categories they want to vote in. As a voter, you don't get to vote for every category, but a limited number of the more specialized categories. So, although Alabama Shakes, who are nominated for big prizes like Album of the Year, they could still lose the Best Alternative Album to Bjork because, presumably, the people who vote for that category are especially interested in it and more likely to be familiar with the artists in that category. A recent example would be Arcade Fire. The year they won the Best Album award - the big prize - for The Suburbs, they lost the Best Alternative Album prize to The Black Keys.

I think it could be Tame Impala's year. Their album was very well received. It's anyone's prize.

R267 I don't really understand the fascination with Tame Impala, they just emulate the past and shamelessly so. Either way though everything you said was accurate.

This!

Thanks, R269. Anyone else a tiny bit underwhelmed? It feels like a slightly different version of of the Let England Shake sound. Not necessarily a bad thing. Let England Shake was brilliant and probably my second favorite of all her albums. But this sampler didn't grab me. Still, I'm excited to hear more. Perhaps a 2 min sampler isn't enough to give you a feel for the album.

Get those old bitches off my screen!

R271, with whom would you prefer we replace them? Be specific.

One of Bjork's most hauntingly beautiful songs.

Not crazy about the new PJ Harvey album artwork. But the song is pretty cool, not terribly bitting, but I think she is over those visceral snarling years, which is understandable.

Also great new Boys for Pele will get a remastered release this year with unheard tracks.

Boys for Pele is amazing. I'd love to hear the lost songs from the sessions, even if they don't live up to the hype.

Nope, R275. This album was not really amazing. It has only one listenable song.

R276 , you must be kidding me?

It was an album that really shocked me and I found it extremely hard to "get", but within a month it became the very opposite. Its really her finest album and one of the top 150 albums of all time.

Caught a Lite Sneeze

Not The Red Baron

Professional Widow

Doughnut Song

Putting The Damage On

Unlistenable?

It is a very complex, difficult and tangled album, which means misunderstood, disliked or just "not got", but those who get Pele love it. Personally it is one of my all time favorite albums, but I can appreciate that some people might find it hard to get, I guess those could always try Taylor Swift.

I can totally understand hating Boys for Pele, R276, because it's a polarising album. I didn't like it at first. But I love it now.

Only 'Caught A Lite Sneeze' is a good song from this PRETENTIOUS album. Kitty knows better than that. Ask kitty, and kitty will tell you which are the best Tori Amos songs. You should value kitty's opinion.

She actually lost a lot of fans b/c of Pele, I wonder if To The Fair Motor Maids of Japan might finally get released on the reissue.

So I like Pj Harvey (mainly Rid of Me through Is This Desire) and Bjork (Debut, Telegram, Homogenic, Vespertine). I never really listened to Tori Amos because she seemed so annoying as a person, but I'm curious to go back and listen. Are there two albums, maybe representing different sounds, that I should try first?

ABSOLUTELY R282

Under The Pink and Boys For Pele

I will also include the incredibly UNDERRATED To Venus and Back

Don't confine yourself with an album, or two. The bitch has sung a number of beautiful songs that are not in an album, but in several albums. If you care, ask for me to be specific, otherwise i won't tell ya.

I LOVE you Kitty!

Let me add two comments too.

I am a -huge- Tori fan, but find Little Earthquakes boring as shit.

When I first put in Boys For Pele, and Beauty Queen started, I thought Tori had gone fucking crazy. The song wasn't even a song and to me was just ugly to listen to. And now, I think the entire thing is brilliant.

BFP is just a haunting tale with a lot of atmosphere, depth, and trippiness. It works on a subconscious level.

Cooling is Tori's best song, but she didn't put it on any of the albums.

The Tori Amos single Cornflake Girl has a hauntingly beautiful B-side called Sister Janet. The single was the first thing I heard from her and I was instantly sold.

What's going on with you ladies? Both 'Cooling' and 'Sister Janet' are extremely boring and the lyrics are mediocre and pretentious.

Im sure Joan Jett, Debbie Harry & even Pat Benatar laugh at the silly "prostitutes" that pass for female music artists now.

Even giving understandable latitude for "pop music" as a genre, you have to find Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande & Nikki Minaj as pathetically untalented & shallow.

Any thoughts on the band Savages? People keep raving about them. I didn't hear the first album but have given the latest a spin and it sounded alright.

R290 are you R285?

No~ I've never heard of The Savages

I don't like the song, anyway. However, i like you R285. You know how to give back, as it seems. Good for you. Ciao...

I'm glad PJ, Tori, & Bjork still have careers. Liz Phair has pretty much retired from the biz and taking care of her son.

Tori is best when her lyrics are super abtruse and almost nonsensical. I think when she gets too overly earnest and straightforward, some of the emotion of the music itself gets overshadowed, which seemed to be the case with much of her output in the 00s. When you listen to a song like 'Space Dog' with obscure references and silly words laid over really beautiful melodies, there's a charm and a sense of humor that for awhile, Tori was a master at. I say that as someone who especially loves her darker and more "plugged" output from about 96-99 (Pele, Choirgirl, Venus).

Oops! That should be abstruse*.

*slaps self*

Space Dog is one of my faves, especially the last minute with the "round" and the those girls now are in the navy lyrics!

LOVE.

I'm kinda disappointed that that new PJ album sampler reminds me so much of LET ENGLAND SHAKE. Guess she can't reinvent the wheel every time. And, hell, LET ENGLAND SHAKE was a brilliant album. Vocally, I wouldn't mind a return to the deeper, huskier more resonant tones of her best album STORIES FROM THE CITY, STORIES FROM THE SEA. But, whatever PJ gives, I will happily take.

Re: the recent discussion of Tori's BOYS FOR PELE. I'm always a bit amused by descriptions like "complex", "dense", "difficult at first." Yes, it's an album that rewards repeated listens, but it's not some experimental avant garde work. At the end of the day, she still knew how to write great hooks. This was still pop music even if some of the lyrics were, as an earlier poster said, deliberately abstruse. I was in 9th grade the year that album came out and it was my first introduction to Tori. I was no music snob. I was far from an expert; not really a music connoisseur yet. And, still, I had no trouble getting into the album immediately. There was nothing difficult about the experience. In fact, other than UNDER THE PINK, I think it's her most immediate and appealing album and probably the best introduction to her as an artist.

Lykke Li, Florence and the Machine, Yelle and Bat for Lashes. Kate Nash, Santogold and SZA are not bad either.

La roux!

The wheel could have come straight off Let England Shake, with the "I heard it was 28,000" line especially, sounding exactly like vocal deliveries and melodies on LES.

Courtney Barnett's new album is pretty cool. great lyricist.

Y'all are slipping. Polly Jean's new video for 'The Wheel' has been live for a whole day now. I didn't realize she was again working with photographer/visual artist Seamus Murphy, who directed all of the 12 'Let England Shake' videos. I really liked the work they did together - especially on 'The Words that Maketh Murder'.

Vice has a pretty interesting interview with Murphy about their process. Apparently, they've been filming footage for this project since 2011 in travels to Kosovo, Afghanistan and elsewhere. 'The Wheel' footage is mostly from Kosovo shot before and during the European migrant crisis.

Would be interesting to hear any interpretations of the lyrics, though. Anyone??

Here's the actual video

R290 - thanks for the tip on Savages. Really enjoying that song.

I'm a huge Sarah McLachlan fan (I'm a gay man! Really, I am!) and I've always considered "World On Fire" to be my "lucky" song (good things seem to happen when I've listened to that song...).

I think that modern day musicians are the shitty end of the pop spectrum. Artists like Bjork, PJ, and Tori basically became known because of a combination of disillusionment with pop, that they wrote some incredible, incredible songs that spoke to a massive portion of the listening public and that they punched their way to the top. I've always been a Bjork fan, mind you. I know most people refer to "It's Oh So Quiet" or "Human Nature", "Army Of Me" or "Joga" or "Play Dead" (good god, Play Dead...) but the first song of hers that caught me was "Hyperballad". It was unlike anything I'd heard before and I must have worn that Debut tape out from constant replay.

And the World On Fire video. Yeah, it got me more involved in charity work. So sue me!

I guess Pj has given up making the more traditional music video, like she use to make post UH HUH HER. Tori Amos has also abandoned music videos, maybe it just an expense that has no really point for artists who no longer get played on music stations.

Kirsty MacColl's Titanic Days still holds up decades later.

Sarah McLachlan is dreadful.

Sorry, R305. I agree with everything else you said!

Screw this.

One criminally underrated album is 'Elusive' by Adrina Thorpe. You know it bitches? I guess not.

You won't find it on YouTube, so i guess you are not going to search for it. You lose, i don't care.

R307 - I would like to see PJ return to more 'produced' music videos eventually. But given how closely linked her 2011-15 world travels were to the making of this new album, the video diaries of Seamus Murphy make a great deal of sense. And Seamus has such a great eye and is capturing aspects of societies that we rarely see in traditional western media, so it's a win-win for me.

Old tired bitches

R309, She does the album live (I searched). It's also on Rhapsody, along with 'Halflight & Shadows.' I like her, even if some of her fans sound like assholes.

r311 your dad is.

[quote] Kirsty MacColl's Titanic Days still holds up decades later.

R307 I made friends with a few Kirsty obsessives 10 or so years ago who got me into her music. I never gave this album much time, though that was in part because I had such a hard time finding it. My friends never made that big a deal about it either, though I can't remember why. I'm listening now and it is really good. Kite and Tropical Brainstorm are probably my favorites overall, but it's nice to go back to this one and (re)discover its virtues.

R312, Adrina's live performances are inferior, in comparison to the studio version of her songs, that's why i didn't mention those live appearances, before. It's asinine that Adrina Thorpe hasn't her best album on YouTube. It's stupid that she preferred to represent this songs LIVE, this way. Believe me, nobody is going to appreciate them THIS WAY. Just seeing Adrina's mousy face, singing and playing her harmonium doesn't do justice to this lovely album. It's beauty is as the title implied 'elusive'. It can lose its magic life, if the performer is not a star.

Adrina, chienne, don't be stingy and let people know about 'Elusive'. Fucking bitch, artists who are better and more popular than you are have all their songs on YouTube in their studio versions. Nobody is going to care if you don't promote your work the right way.

I only really liked this particular album. I didn't like the rest stuff Adrina did, although everything she is doing is always in a similar style.

*these songs

Scout Nilbett is pretty awesome.

German singer, Ute Lemper's beautiful cover of Nick Cave's Little Water Song.

Meg Myers is also a promising singer.

I love the way the song reaches its climax from 3:05 to 4:08. Wow...

I think Tori Amos is better than PJ and Bjork because Tori is not cut off from her sexuality/femininity. There's something unnaturally asexual about PJ and Bjork, they exist in a kind of artificial space where eroticism is rejected and everything is sterile and too cerebral. DH Lawrence would be disgusted by PJ/Polly and Bjork for those reasons. Tori Amos on the other hand taps into her sensuality and feminine energies, as Kate Bush did before her, knowing that there is something much more primal and powerful down there. PJ Harvey and Bjork are for hipsters, period. They are the kind of performers people convince themselves are brilliant because it's fashionable: both are non-threatening because they conform to mannerisms of masculine swagger. Tori doesn't have time for that bullshit, that's why she's rated less: because her themes are not taken seriously, being the REAL woman that she is.

I agree r320, Tori's biggest detractors are female journalists trying to impress the the guys. As well as the macho indie rock star or rap loving male journalists. They dismiss Amos,yet will hype up some crappy indie star or worse yet some ubran hipster PBR&B singer, who is all bravado, trying so hard to be cool and the cardboard cutout indie rock star, yet their music is fake, boring and shitty, and once their hype and style has faded, so too, is their overrated music.

Absolutely r321, you get it. All of Polly's posturing with her guitar is so mannered, like she's spent her life trying to be Mick Jagger, Bjork's self awareness takes her 'kookiness' into parody, and again, it's all contrived because she actually has nothing to say at all: she is so lacking in true expressiveness that to act like a spastic is her own recourse. When Tori is in performance, she absolutely loses herself and her euphoria on stage may make some people embarrassed but again, it's those feminine energies which are truly fluid and, unlike Polly and Bjork, not mannered in the least. For those reasons, Tori Amos is not taken seriously, because she puts truth before art. And PJ and Bjork put the artIFICE in art ad and are repulsively anemic. Actually, I'd describe them as drag acts: they are indie boys in drag. I now understand why Kate Bush secluded herself for decades, because she's trying to protect her truth from the sneering cynical self appointed indie fashionistas who consider the Pollys and Bjorks to be 'geniuses'.

I think that is changing, Tori is now at a stage where her influence over younger artists is coming into focus, and many pop bloggers and finally beginning to show her the acclaim she deserves. Many hipster artists have begun to cover her songs, and Pitchfork gave Little Earthquake and Under the Pink reissues, best music tags and great reviews.

Anyone else heard the new Harvey album yet, I'm not sure what I think of it, it is probably toward the bottom of her output, down their with White Chalk and Uh Huh Her. Sad thing is we'll have to wait another 5 years for a chance of a classic Harvey album.

The new album isn't terrible, not great, certainly not worth a 5 year wait, but most albums rarely are. another the Ministers of Defence and Social Affairs are very good.

Liz Phair 3/23/16 polyester bride

R19 : why Tori? Whyyyyyy?????

Ahem! Just off the top of my head, and some listed on my iPod.... Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill, anyone?) Kat Bjelland (Babes in Toyland, Lubricated Goat) Patti Smith (of course!) The Runaways The Slits My girl Kim Deal (The Pixies, The Breeders) L7 7 year bitch Carrie fucking Brownstein - Sleater Kinney - helloooo! (And Wild Flag) Siouxsie Sioux has been mentioned..... Cuntney Love has been an intentional omission. The grandmother, and nicest lady all-round of this lot : Toody Cole Dead Moon and Pierced Arrows. THESE are sisters of PJ. The anti-Lilith fair bullshit.

This chick is fucking INCREDIBLE. Saw the Blues Pills three times when they toured here with Kadavar - fucking opening act and wiped the FLOOR with them! (& Kadavar are massive Nordic man mountain musical gods) Seriously, check them out. Better live than their studio recordings

Ooh! Add Kim Gordon to my list!

Correction : Kat Bjelland was in CRUNT, not Lubricated Goat - LG was another band her ex hub Stu Spasm was in (as well as CRUNT)

Actually, I'm going to share this song, for all the DL FRAUS. So fitting.

This could be the DL Frau anthem:

Fat swine, wants some attention. Trying hard, to make an entrance. Fat sow, stink of affection, Sweetheart? Sweet meats . You. Want. More. Now......

Pj Harvey's new album is about half awesome, the two Ministry songs are awesome, that crazy sax . River Anacostia and Near The Mermorials... Are also cool.

R332 : we've got it on back order for vinyl - was waiting, but will need to check it out (not a sax fan though)

Really loving Say Lou Lou right now.

There are still more serious female artists of course, but what's changed is that they don't get mainstream exposure anymore. You didn't need to be into indie to know who Tori, PJ Harvey or Bjork were, you could see them on MTV and hear them on mainstream radio stations.

Now if a female artist wants mainstream fame, she has to fit the mold of the glamorous poptart. Young people especially don't even know of anything else unless they are actively seeking it out, which most aren't.

I would like to respond to the claim that Tori Amos is better than the other two because she's more of a true woman in her music:

WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH PLAYING AN INSTRUMENT AND WRITING A MELODY?

When you say something like that, it makes you sound like you know nothing about music.

The new Harvey album is a lot better than I orginal thought, it is a real slow burner. I'm not crazy about the saxophone as instrument in rock music, but it works here because it's so squealing and manic. In a way this Is almost a jazz album because there are a lot of spirals in the song and spoken word overdubs.

Loving the new Sarah Blasko album, Eternal Return, it has a beautiful nocturnal 80s Euro synth sound. Pretty awesome.

Even worse r335, even Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus had to ditch the country and become urban hipster pop tarts to achieve the level of global fame they wanted. As someone who lived in Brooklyn back in the early 2000s, it disheartening to see what the whole hipster scene has become. I left years ago, as did many of my friends, before it turned into the whole urban hipster shithigger scene it has, those left were always mainstream phonies who had spotted the "potential" in the scene early on and have just become a horrible conceited parody of what started out with such love and honesty.

I've noticed Polly Harvey thanked Ben Whinshaw in the liner notes, looks as they a friends.

[quote]Even worse [R335], even Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus had to ditch the country and become urban hipster pop tarts to achieve the level of global fame they wanted.

Don't forget Katy Perry.

(from her wikipedia page)

[quote]After singing in church during her childhood, she pursued a career in gospel music as a teenager. Perry signed with Red Hill Records and released her debut studio album Katy Hudson under her birth name in 2001, which was commercially unsuccessful.

Tori Amos 1992 Interview Compilation

Looking forward to the BFP#20 reissue, hopefully Alamo is on there, it is one of her most beautiful songs. Now I just have to figure out how to make Ben my bf.

Seems Cat Power is retired from music and is now a full time BernieBro.

^LOL, so true.

What about Regina Spektor? She seems a lot like Tori, although she hates the comparison.

I saw her r346 years ago in NY, she was anti folk back then, her music was more stark and idiosyncratic then to what it became, but she seemed shy and hyper sweet.

Kristin Hersh has just put up her new 50 Foot Wave song Bath White on her site, it's pretty awesome.

[quote]I saw her [R346] years ago in NY, she was anti folk back then, her music was more stark and idiosyncratic then to what it became, but she seemed shy and hyper sweet.

I don't know where to slot her in as far as genre, I just like her. At least until I saw a University of Phoenix commercial that has someone who sounds a lot like her singing "If I Only Had a Brain."

PJ is on target for her first number one album in the UK.

Tara Angell's album Come Down was so cool.

I think the new PJ Harvey album, in ten, twenty will be the most important and defining album of our time. This is zeitgeist album.

The new PJ album seems to have just gone out of my thinking, I bought it, liked it, played it for a few days, then forgot about it. I'm hoping she doesn't take another 5 freakin' years to make another album, and get back to a more personal record (like This is Love) rather than the third person political.

THEY'RE ALL TIRED.

Fiona Apple is/was great, but she is a hit-or-miss performer. I prefer her to Regina Spektor.

R355 - Fiona is light years ahead of Regina Spektor's easy listening to be sure. I saw Fiona live during her When the Pawn and Extraordinary Machine periods and she was brilliant both times.

R353 - yeah, I don't think PJ's ever going to beat Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. What a brilliant album.

Fiona scares me live, she truly inhabits the songs, and that can be hard on her. It's probably why she doesn't record or tour much and has to take 7 year breaks between albums.

I'm looking forward to the new Anges Obel album though.

Also really the new Rachael Yamagata album, Tightrope Walker, sound like it might be awesome.

Tori's BFP get a 20th anniversary re-release, I'm wondering if she'll finally put out To The Fair Motor Maids of Japan.

The New Tori album was nice, it was fine I guess, but... I don't know not much compared to her first 6 albums.

Bjork's Utopia was not good, it was not good at all.

I really liked Division by Shannon Wright, possibly my favorite album of the year.

I'm excited for Sarah Blasko's new album Depth of Field.

Joan As Police Woman hasher new album, Damned Devotion, out next month

Uber cool Spanish singer Russian Red aka Lourdes Hernandez.

Emily Haines

Fiona was nothing but an Alanis clone. Her (and several other ‘90s rocker chicks) career was made possible but the astounding success of Jagged Little Pill.

JLP was an iconic album but Fiona's later work has out classed Alanis' records. Fiona is much more critically lauded now most female artists. Here is a brilliant recent performance with the very sexy and official genius Chris Thile (in 2012 he received a MacArthur Genius Grant) so f u Kanye, fake desperate wannbe genius.

R320 How could you think PJ is asexual? I'm not a huge fan, although I like some of her work. That any woman or man who doesn't act how their sex is supposed to has to be lying is horribly boring; many great artists were androgynous. Maybe you're not specific enough as to what these magical "feminine energies" are. Bjork does not seem even slightly manly to me.

My final opinion is that all (or almost all) performance involves acting and artifice to some degree, whether in a movie or playing with a band. Some are just better at seeming real.

I value the music itself above all of that, though.

Just stumbled across my To Venus and Back CD and fell in love with Concertina all over again.

I should've checked the date of R320 before posting.

Here is an amazing live version of that song r368.

Thank you r370.

Angel Olsen is by far the most interesting female artist around right now.

St Vincent's Masseduction was very disappointing generic hipster pop, I particularly disliked the album artwork and her fashion manifestation of the album.

PJ Harvey is anything but asexual to me

The great Ane Brun singing Jóga

PJ & Bjork team up.

French American fashionitsa Brisa Roche

I'm guessing there isn't going to be a Chorigirl reissue, she would have said something by now and Harvey probably wont make an album for another 5 years.

But Neko Case's Hell On sounds awesome.

Courtney Barnett's new album could be great.

Anna Burch - Tea-Soaked Letter is pure Gen X indie revival.

Juliana Hatfield has a new album out "Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John" in April .He cover of Physical.

The sacred trinity of music.

R194 my partner loves Poe, and reads her brothers books as well.

R 365 The Idler Wheel tour was fantastic. Love Fi. Regina has two good albums.

Poe's first album was meh, but Haunted is fantastic. Few songs can justify being 9+ minutes long, but "Wild" manages it (so does Tori's "Yes Anastasia"). Her situation with her record company sounds hellish.

Lol at anything Tori covers. Shit is awful.

I think I have every single Tori and Bjork bootleg. Seen them live many times. Only recently I've started to download old PJ bootlegs and clean a bit the sound as they are from the late 90's or early 2000. Too bad many links have expired and there's nowhere to find the older stuff. At the guitars101 forum they used to have many but most are gone.

Other female musicians I love whom I consider at their level: Ani di Franco,Portishead,Kate Bush.

I can't really relate to contemp music at all...it's too street/hip hop wannabe,no melody no concept,lyrics are a joke and they all sound and look the same. We don't have pioneers anymore.

I think there maybe a Moon Pix 20th anniversary reissue this year, maybe. It is still one of my favorite albums ever.

The New(ish) PJ Harvey song is sublime, I'm hoping her next album follows track.

I always have to wonder why Hope Sandoval never figures in these discussions about legendary queens of spooky pop. Is she too rootsy? Too goth? Too narcotic? Too quiet or too sporadic to release new jams?

I love all the women listed but Hope means more to me than them combined. Hearing her languid, chilling chant for the first time on ‘She’s My Baby’ at 14 years old completely tipped my world on its axis. And she hasn’t disappointed me since. She could hold her own against Tori, Cat, Fiona, Bjork.

I loved So Tonight I Night See, and especially her song Trouble is one of the best songs the 21 century.

My debut work was one of the most acclaimed in pop music history. Don't leave me out bitches.

Belly "Shiny One". the first single from their first album in 23 years.

R391 the Warm Inventions’ THROUGH THE DEVIL SOFTLY might be my favorite album. It doesn’t diminish in splendor as years go by, and it will be a decade old next year.

Hope has voice from beyond, and is one of the few women in music who has carved a niche entirely her own outside of her original band. I can’t think of a single poor recording or performance done by her. Maybe she’s best-kept secret.

Lana must have heard Trouble and thought, " Hmmm how can I sell this to basic urban hipsters?"

The three stars.

ALLMUSIC has readjusted Little Earthquakes from 4.5 to 5 stars. Also Let England Shake from 4 to 5 stars and Bjork's Post from 4.5 to 5 also.

Bump

Thanks to this thread I remembered my love for Liz Phair and her Exile in Guyville album. She's touring this fall and I've got tickets!

PJ Harvey Live Glastonbury 1995

Bump

PJ Harvey - The Wheel

PJ Harvey - Oh My Lover [Live 1995]

Bump.

How 'bout ya all go fuck yerselves?

Thanx

Bjork - Possibly Maybe 9live 1996)

PJ Harvey is probably taking a break from touring right now. She is probably done touring with her last album.

I like the new Cat Power song (featuring Lana!). I lost track of her after she put out that one really boring album years ago. But it seems like she's back in form now.

I agree that Bjork, PJ and Tori are great.

I think there are also some great female artists that are newer to the scene, but I think one reason the three OP mentions stick in our minds is that they came to prominence in one of the last big eras for radio, for a variety of music being on TV and promoted, etc.

It all sort of went out the window when Ashlee Simpson was lip synching on SNL. We have a lot of acts that either don't get radio airtime or don't get TV airtime. The ones that do are focused on youth demographics. The good ones might get a tenth of the exposure that the above cited Trinity did back in the 90s.

But I love the XX (a duo, but the singer is great), Bat for Lashes, Laura Marling. These days I find most of my new music via BBC Radio 6 (available online or on iTunes radio).

I think Courtney Barnett is the Sheryl Crow of today (pleasant enough but vastly overrated) and although I loved, loved, LOVED PJ's initial run of albums, "White Chalk" was the last thing she did that interested me. "Let England Shake" and "Hope Six" have just been album long lectures. I'm glad she's woke, but they're hard to listen to, especially the limousine liberal chants from "Hope SIx."

r408, Lana Del Ray? Really? What's next, Britney Spears?

That is a great point, r409.

She's very good, PJ.

The problem is that it's kind of difficult to compare credible artists from the 90s to modern day, credible artists, because the music landscape and how people have access to music and how it's distributed (as in digitally and streaming sites like spotify) has changed. Sure, to me Tori Amos, PJ Harvey & Björk still remain relevant, but I don't think anyone new has come along I really appreciate. All the artists I love (Siouxsie Sioux, Natacha Atlas, for example) also come from a different era. The only "latest" discoveries would be Victoria Legrand (Beach House) and Santigold.

I agree with you, r413.

[quote]I think Courtney Barnett is the Sheryl Crow of today (pleasant enough but vastly overrated)

I must agree with you about Barnett. I listened to some music by her girlfriend (wife?) Jen Cloher who is a much more interesting singer songwriter. Her new album reminds me a little bit of the first Breeders album POD.

Beth Orton - She Cries Your Name

Italian folk signer, Emma Tricca's album St. Peter was one of my favorite albums of the year so far.

The Innocence Mission, Green Bus.

Abra Moore - Four Leaf Clover [1997]

Bump.

Why was the Choirgirl reissue canceled? Shame I was hoping Violette's Eyes would get a release.

Can Fiona Apple even consider herself a professional musician anymore? When there are gaps of 7 years between albums, surely it's more off an occasionally hobby than career?

So excited for the new Kristin Hersh album. LAX sounds raw.

Tori Amos - Professional Widow

PJ Harvey & Harry Escott - An Acre Of Land [2018]

PJ Harvey - A Dog Called Money

To whom it may concern. I did not start this thread about Tori Amos, PJ Harvey or Bjork. The person who started the thread probably does not come on here often.

R10 Emiliana Torriini's cover of Melanie Safka's 'I Really Loved Harold' ought to be a DL-anthem.

Linda Perry - Taken [1996]

No one comes close to PJ Harvey's menace, gender shifting, strange time stamps and flat out inventiveness (which is why I always think her newest cds are off...then they creep into my brian and make me love them.). She is a revelation and one of the most creative artists.

My heart also goes to Hope Sandoval, who is vasty underrated. She can invoke a mood like no body's business in five seconds flat. First note she hits in each song gives me goosebumps.

PJ Harvey is a true artist. I will not be surprised if it takes five or ten years to put out another album. She is not a flash in the pan. PJ Harvey has been around for twenty six years.

PJ Harvey’s ‘Rid of Me’ at 25: A Salute to Her Funniest, Nastiest Masterpiece

I love Melanie De Biasio's brand of enigmatic Jazz noir.

Australian artist Emma Russack doing a great cover of The Killing Moon.

Bjork Interview - 2018

r435 - WTF? Ray Cokes is still alive? I know him as an European MTV VJ from the 90s.

Thank you r435 for sharing the interview.

Bjork looks great in that interview.

You're welcome, r437.

Not really a solo female artist, but Beth Gibbons of Portishead, what's their best album? Form me it's almost photo finish between Portishead & Third, but Poritshead just wins by a fraction, then Dummy.

I read on one site that PJ Harvey might have had a lesbian relationship with Beth Gibbons from Portishead. That was just a rumor.

PJ Harvey is scoring the All About Eve musical which seems fitting , she always gave the Betty Davis vibe around the time of TBYML

I agree with you, r442.

Tori Amos Interview (Salon Talks)

Bump

Portishead - Roads

Shirley Manson "Under The Influence" Of PJ Harvey

The new Kristin Hersh album is pretty cool.

Tiffany Anders - Person I Knew [Produced By PJ Harvey]

I don't understand how you're supposed to enjoy Bjork's music, it's so shit. How does she even make a living? who buys this shit?

Maybe for the fans of Bjork who like her music, r450.

St. Vincent "Severed Crossed Fingers" | Austin City Limits Web Exclusive

Bump

PJ Harvey - Live on Jools Holland (2004)

Sadly I'm guess the time frame for another PJ studio album is at least 4-5 years away, maybe more.

I'm afraid so, r455.

PJ Harvey - KCRW 2007

Why did Rob Ellis quit playing with PJ Harvey after her Uh Huh Her tour?

PJ Harvey - No Man Is An Island [2016]

Kristin Hersh - Your Ghost (with Michael Stipe)

PJ Harvey - Poet in the City Festival at Kings Place 9th June 2017

This thread is dead. Ugh!

Tori is selling her Irish house, Ballywilliam, I'm assuming she is spending all her time now in America with her Mom. It looks barely lived in and decorated pretty basically. Gorgeous house though, you could do so much with it.

Ballywilliam brochure, looks like she hasn't lived in it since maybe UG

Mark Lanegan - Hit The City (featuring PJ Harvey)

Bump.

Rob Ellis interview [The Trap Set]

Does Tori live in the US or the UK?

The UK

I'd have thought she'd being spending most of her time in America with her mom.

What’s wrong with her mother?

She had a stroke.

Bump.

All three seem to suck these days. Especially Bjork. So 90s they're flawed.

In what way, r474?

PJ Harvey - C'Mon Billy [Live in 1995 on the Tonight Show]

Here is a PJ Harvey forum..

I miss Liz Phair.

I miss Liz Phair too, r478.

r478 & r479 =same person.

PJ Harvey - Will's Song

They did a Q interview together, with some very memorable quotes.

Isn't Tori going bald?

I read somewhere she's been in wigs for years, very expensive natural looking wigs which look exactly like her original hair. Hair loss for women has to be devastating, especially for a performer whose image has been so important to their success.

Björk to Debut “Most Elaborate” Stage Show Yet in New York

Tori also looks like she had a nose job and other facial work.

She certainly does, r485.

I know people don't like Björk's recent music but I think she creates some really trippy music you don't even have to get high for. Love Utopia.

They suck! Quit trying to populate the threads on dL with Björk, pJ, tori, others from that dreadful time. They’re forgotten for good reason.

Bugger off, r488.

Tori Amos - Smells Like Teen Spirit [Nirvana cover]

I'm interested in where Tori will go on her new album. i read on another forum it's already in the early stages.

Ben in a PJ shirt

PJ Harvey Doc ‘A Dog Called Money’ to Premiere at Berlin Film Fest

The Enduring, Incandescent Power of Kate Bush

Peer behind PJ Harvey’s creative curtain in her upcoming documentary A Dog Called Money

I saw Shirley Manson from Garbage last year. Great performer.

I saw the Pretenders on their Get Close tour in 1987. Chrissie Hynde rocked it back then.

PJ Harvey - A Dog Called Money - Film Excerpt

How to write a song with PJ Harvey

Actually, I prefer Cat Power and Fiona Apple over Amos, Harvey, and Bjork...

Cat Power Performs ‘Tiny Desk Concert’

Nothing Is Trite: PJ Harvey In A Dog Called Money

Rumor is Fiona Apple will have a new album out this summer.

What an extraordinary talent Polly is r499.

Jessica Pratt;s new album Quiet Signs is awesome.

Tori Amos' finest moment, "Oil Spill," hasn't been mentioned yet?

Minnie Driver | Beloved (Official Video)

Karen O - Day Go By

But none of them come close to the true diva of rock, Miss Janet Jackson.

One Little Indian just released all nine Björk album in cassette tape format. Yes, cassette tapes!

from the latest mailinglist email.

We're very happy to release a limited edition reissue of all 9 Björk albums on coloured cassette tapes!

Later With Jools Holland - PJ Harvey Interview - 13 10 01

Bump.

Does anyone think that PJ Harvey will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame years from now?

This Album Changed My Life: PJ Harvey – Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2001)

Kristin Hersh - Your Ghost (Official Video)

This thread is slowly dying but surely. I am not OP. I do feel that most of you do not care about Tori Amos, PJ Harvey and Bjork.

There's not much to say about them except that Tori Amos should've died in a grease fire long ago.

R517. All I have to say is...

Tori is just like...

ALL ABOUT EVE Will Be Broadcast Live in Cinemas in One Week

PJ Harvey - The Moth (featuring Lily James)

PJ Harvey releases score to All About Eve: Stream

Björk revisits her old school to play a surprise DJ set

Gillian Anderson - Endorsement

"Well, the song that PJ Harvey has written for me to sing in All About Eve is just beautiful. It sounds like something that would fit in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. She wrote one for [my co-star] Lily James to sing too and both will soon be released in an album with proper accompaniment. PJ, aside from being a very talented musician, is just an all-around cool chick and it was a great privilege to not only sing the song eight times a week for what will be over three months but record it with her in her fantastic studio."

PJ Harvey - A Dog Called Money official trailer

Bump.

Desert Sessions (Josh Homme & PJ Harvey) : "Crawl Home"

KT Tunstall - The River

Emma Ruth Rundle - Fever Dreams (Live on KEXP)

Somebody please close this thread. It is obvious no one has been responding to it.

Tori's mother Mary and her close friend Beanie have both just died within a few days of each other.

Tori Amos is no longer a pop star — and she seems fine about it

new PJ Harvey song “The Crowded Cell” for series ‘The Virtues’ (listen)

Bump.

Dan DeLuca’s Mix Picks: Nina Simone, PJ Harvey, and Bob Dylan’s birthday bash

PJ Harvey - 2001 GIF

PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her EPK

Review: The Virtues music trumps PJ Harvey’s soundtrack for All About Eve

Camp Cope - Full Performance (Live on KEXP)

Bump this thread, please.

PJ Harvey on River Music Hall - 2001 (Audio)

PJ Harvey Tribute Band - Angelene

I've got an angry snatch, gurl, you know what I mean!

[quote] Love all three. One of their farts is more interesting and melodic than the likes of Lana del Rey, or Florence "SHIIIIIIIIIPPPPPP! TO WRECK!!!!!!!!!!" whatsersnatch.

YES!

LICK MAH LEGS!

PJ Harvey HD 2004 T In The Park - The Whores Hustle And The Hustlers Whore

50!

foot

Queen-aye!

PJ Harvey_Live Eurockeennes 2004

[quote]r428 Emiliana Torriini's cover of Melanie Safka's 'I Really Loved Harold' ought to be a DL-anthem.

You mean, replacing [italic]'I Really Loved Dick'[/italic] ?

I read here that Tori and also Kate Bush are considered frau-appeal artists. Can that really be true?

R550 Not the sort of fat Francie Frau types. Those women like Katy Perry.

But a certain indie frauette type will like Tori, Kate et al.

I'm amazed this thread is still live almost 4 years later!

PJ Harvey Joy [Live]

Sydney Film Festival Review: A Dog Called Money sees the worlds of music and video collide

Are people abandoning this thread of what? Are people bloody stupid? For heaven's sake.

NEVER compare Björk to ANYONE!

Tori Amos Interview (Salon Talks)

PJ Harvey_Live Eurockeennes 2004

PJ Harvey - The Crowded Cell [The Virtues BBC TV Show Theme]

Where are the PJ Harvey fans on here?