Yesterday Esquire published a list of 75 Albums Every Man Should Own. Now, I’m fond of a good listicle as much as the next person, but this list kind of bugged me. It was pejorative and dull and almost entirely devoid of female artists. Which, around here anyway, is just not on.
I sent out an email to all the BitchBuzz bloggers asking for suggestions for an article that was to be entitled “Albums Every Woman Should Own” - a list that celebrated female artists, reflected female tastes and included albums people actually listen to rather than buying only to have them sit in a box in the attic gathering dust or to congratulate themselves when list like these are published in magazines.
We hit a bit of a (transatlantic) roadblock.
Should it be all female artists? Should it be classic, genre-shaping tracks by the industry most talented stars? Should we acknowledge the record breakers? Or should it just be stuff we like?
I decided our list would be all of the above and more.
It would celebrate female talent. It would celebrate female taste. It would acknowledge the mainstream and the eclectic. It would be include albums to dance to, to cry to, to….y’know to. It would be the music that is the soundtrack to our lives, that we actually listen to and that we think is good.
And so, without any further ado, here it is:
BitchBuzz's List of the 75 Albums Every Woman Should Own:
Fink - Biscuits For Breakfast
Portishead - Dummy
Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
Kosheen - Resist
Basement Jaxx - Rooty
Bloc Party - Intimacy
Stereophonics - Language. Sex. Violence. Other
KOL - Only By The Night
Roisin Murphy - Overpowered
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californication
Lily Allen - Alright Still
Amy Winehosue - Back to Black
Imogen Heap - Speak for Yourself
Britney Spears - Baby One More Time
Hole - Live Through This
Sleeper - Sale of The Century
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Ani DiFranco - Dilate
Fiona Apple - When The Pawn...
Lauren Hill - The Miseducation of Lauren Hill
Goldfrapp - Black Cherry
Indigo Girls - Rites of Passage or Swamp Ophelia
Sleater Kinney - All Hands on The Bad One
Bikini Kill - Reject All American
The Gossip - Standing in the Way of Control
Joan Jett - Bad Reputation
Le Tigre - This Island
Helen Reddy - I Am Woman
The Clash - London Calling
Madonna - The Immaculate Collection
David Bowie - Changes
The Ramones - End of the Century
The Pixies - Doolittle
The Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True
Annie Lennox - Songs of Mass Destruction
Aretha Franklin - The Very Best of Aretha Franklin
Alanis Morissette - Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
Laura Marling - Alas, I Cannot Swim
Joni Mitchell - Blu
Eels - Beautiful Freak
Pearl Jam - No Code
Stephanie Dosen - Lily of the Spectre
PJ Harvey - White Chalk
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Beck - Sea Change
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
Laura Viers - Year of Meteors
Cat Stevens - Teaser and the Firecat
Suzanne Vega - Standing Solitude
Etta James - The Best of Etta James: The Chess Singles
Nick Cave - The Boatman's Call
Kate Bush - Lionheart
Bat for Lashes - Fur and Gold
Spice Girls - Spiceworld
Christina Aguilera - Stripped
The Smiths- The Queen Is Dead
R.E.M.- Murmur
U2- The Joshua Tree
Gram Parsons- Grievous Angel
The Byrds- Fifth Dimension
The Replacements- Tim
Erykah Badu's Baduizm
Missy Elliot - Miss E….So Addictive
John Legend - Get Lifted
Tina Turner - Best Of…..
Beyoncé - Dangerously in Love
Tori Amos - Strange Little Girls
Dixie Chicks - Taking the Long Way
No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom
Bjork - Vespertine
I’m almost afraid to ask - but can you think of any we’ve missed?