Emmylou Harris, Laurie Anderson, k.d. lang Make NPR's "150 Greatest Albums Made by Women" List

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NPR Music has published a list titled Turning the Tables: The 150 Greatest Albums Made by Women, and among them are Emmylou Harris's Wrecking Ball, Laurie Anderson's Big Science, k.d. lang's Ingénue, and the Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir's Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares. "This list, of the greatest albums made by women between 1964 and the present, is an intervention, a remedy, a correction of the historical record and hopefully the start of a new conversation," says NPR.

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NPR Music has published a list titled Turning the Tables: The 150 Greatest Albums Made by Women, and among them are several by artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Emmylou Harris, Laurie Anderson, k.d. lang, and the Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir.

"This list, of the greatest albums made by women between 1964 and the present, is an intervention, a remedy, a correction of the historical record and hopefully the start of a new conversation," says NPR. "Compiled by nearly 50 women from across NPR and the public radio system and produced in partnership with Lincoln Center, it rethinks popular music to put women at the center."

Emmylou Harris's groundbreaking album, Wrecking Ball, first released on Elektra in 1995 and of which Nonesuch released a deluxe three-disc reissue in 2014 and its first worldwide vinyl release in 2016, is on the list. Harris's collaboration with producer Daniel Lanois on the album "resulted in one of the most stunning partnerships in modern music," exclaims WYEP's Cindy Howes. "With her haunting, soaring voice and Lanois's sultry and experimental production, the result was no less than magic from the first listen ... It's no wonder that Wrecking Ball won the Grammy for best Contemporary Folk Album."

Laurie Anderson's debut album, Big Science, first released on Warner Bros. in 1982 and reissued in a re-mastered and expanded 25th anniversary edition on Nonesuch in 2007, mixed performance art, pop, and electronics, most hauntingly on "O Superman." On Big Science, Anderson "wielded a mass medium as a critique against itself," says NPR Music contributor Laura Snapes. The album " takes a refreshingly wry attitude to technology's perils compared to today's often obvious commentary on the subject ... Despite Anderson's clear aversion to dehumanization at the hands of technology, Big Science is thrilling because it isn't a case of clashing binaries arguing for or against."

k. d. lang's double platinum-selling, Grammy-winning album Ingénue, first released on Sire in 1992, was released in a special two-disc silver-anniversary edition on Nonesuch earlier this month, and is on the list. "Early adopters who recognized the power and grace of k.d. lang's voice behind her early cowpunk performance art were graced with the ultimate gift in Ingénue," says WFUV's Rita Houston. "[T]he album is a capital-R romantic listen on the surface—with a sound rounded out by fiddles, pedal steel and sitar—but has so much more to say ... Bold, butch and beautiful, k.d. lang made an album that was never of its time, and as such, is timeless."

The Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Vocal Choir made its Nonesuch Records debut with the release of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares in the US in 1987, sparking a global interest in the group's captivating voices and followed by two additional volumes on the label. "Spine-tingling, otherworldly beauty," says NPR Music's Anastasia Tsioulcas of the music, "full of gorgeous dissonances and fierce, sung-out emotion ... [T]he music's emotive power and haunting beauty comes shining through."

Read more and see the complete list, Turning the Tables: The 150 Greatest Albums Made by Women, at npr.org/music.

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NPR 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women: Emmylou Harris, Laurie Anderson, k.d. lang, Bulgarian Choir
  • Monday, July 24, 2017
    Emmylou Harris, Laurie Anderson, k.d. lang Make NPR's "150 Greatest Albums Made by Women" List

    NPR Music has published a list titled Turning the Tables: The 150 Greatest Albums Made by Women, and among them are several by artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Emmylou Harris, Laurie Anderson, k.d. lang, and the Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir.

    "This list, of the greatest albums made by women between 1964 and the present, is an intervention, a remedy, a correction of the historical record and hopefully the start of a new conversation," says NPR. "Compiled by nearly 50 women from across NPR and the public radio system and produced in partnership with Lincoln Center, it rethinks popular music to put women at the center."

    Emmylou Harris's groundbreaking album, Wrecking Ball, first released on Elektra in 1995 and of which Nonesuch released a deluxe three-disc reissue in 2014 and its first worldwide vinyl release in 2016, is on the list. Harris's collaboration with producer Daniel Lanois on the album "resulted in one of the most stunning partnerships in modern music," exclaims WYEP's Cindy Howes. "With her haunting, soaring voice and Lanois's sultry and experimental production, the result was no less than magic from the first listen ... It's no wonder that Wrecking Ball won the Grammy for best Contemporary Folk Album."

    Laurie Anderson's debut album, Big Science, first released on Warner Bros. in 1982 and reissued in a re-mastered and expanded 25th anniversary edition on Nonesuch in 2007, mixed performance art, pop, and electronics, most hauntingly on "O Superman." On Big Science, Anderson "wielded a mass medium as a critique against itself," says NPR Music contributor Laura Snapes. The album " takes a refreshingly wry attitude to technology's perils compared to today's often obvious commentary on the subject ... Despite Anderson's clear aversion to dehumanization at the hands of technology, Big Science is thrilling because it isn't a case of clashing binaries arguing for or against."

    k. d. lang's double platinum-selling, Grammy-winning album Ingénue, first released on Sire in 1992, was released in a special two-disc silver-anniversary edition on Nonesuch earlier this month, and is on the list. "Early adopters who recognized the power and grace of k.d. lang's voice behind her early cowpunk performance art were graced with the ultimate gift in Ingénue," says WFUV's Rita Houston. "[T]he album is a capital-R romantic listen on the surface—with a sound rounded out by fiddles, pedal steel and sitar—but has so much more to say ... Bold, butch and beautiful, k.d. lang made an album that was never of its time, and as such, is timeless."

    The Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Vocal Choir made its Nonesuch Records debut with the release of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares in the US in 1987, sparking a global interest in the group's captivating voices and followed by two additional volumes on the label. "Spine-tingling, otherworldly beauty," says NPR Music's Anastasia Tsioulcas of the music, "full of gorgeous dissonances and fierce, sung-out emotion ... [T]he music's emotive power and haunting beauty comes shining through."

    Read more and see the complete list, Turning the Tables: The 150 Greatest Albums Made by Women, at npr.org/music.

    Journal Articles:Artist NewsRadio

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