What's on My Speakers: Girl Power
I love the mystery that unfolds—which you end up trying to solve—when you start listening to an artist’s songs across the time they’re active.
What’s on My Speakers is what’s coming through my speakers when I’m cooking, resting, writing, working, and just existing in general. Music and sound are a huge part of my life, and they deserve more attention than I usually give them.
As someone who calls herself a (mostly retired) singer-songwriter, I love listening to artists who take the time to craft their songs and make them personal. From Carly Simon to Mariah Carey, I love them all. I love the mystery that unfolds—which you end up trying to solve—when you start listening to an artist’s songs across the time they’re active. Here are a few of my new favorites—maybe I’ll get these albums for my record player!
Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine, 2024
I’ve never been a huge fan of Ariana—I’m a millennial and more of a Mariah Carey fan—but I did enjoy her 2020 album, Positions. It was more my speed than say, Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts with her teenybopper song “Vampire.” When I decided to listen to this new one, Eternal Sunshine, I assumed Ariana was referencing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. That reference and her restrained vocals on the album turned this millennial into a fan—not an Arianator, but an appreciator at most.
Eternal Sunshine reminds me of Mariah’s Charmbracelet because it showcases the singer’s emotional vulnerability at the cost of vocal gymnastics and better production choices. However, I think that Eternal Sunshine does a better job at keeping the singer vulnerable without making them seem like they don’t suit the production of the songs. Charmbracelet leans heavily on samples—from Tweet’s “Call Me” to Ice Cube’s “You Know How We Do It”—and even contains a full-on cover, Def Leppard’s “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak,” like Music Box has “Without You.” Mariah loves covering white men’s bands, apparently.
Anyway! The initial singles of Eternal Sunshine didn’t wow me much. “Yes, And?” was a dud for me—I liked the meme more than the song. And “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)” took a long time for me to like, but I got there eventually. It’s the song that got Ariana surpassing Taylor Swift as the woman with the most number-one debuts on Billboard. But you know what got me actually to listen to the whole album? That Saturday Night Live guesting—she did “Imperfect for You,” which is my favorite song from Eternal Sunshine.
Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft, 2024
It took me three albums before I chose to look more into Billie Eilish’s music. I’d previously thought her songwriting was too “young” for my taste like I felt with Ariana. I think the same is true, but as I’ve read more about her and her relationship with her brother, Finneas—and her mom, Maggie Baird, who I follow on Instagram—I’ve been more and more interested in her point of view.
I also have collaborating-on-music-with-my-older-brother as part of my lore, so I was curious how personal Billie’s songs would feel. I’d never written or arranged songs just with my brother—always with our bandmates: Ian, Joey, and John. But before we were bandmates at The Cellar Doors, he was also the bassist of my debut EP, Katipunera. I found working with family to be complicated. I never knew how to accept criticism or give it, so tracks where my brother and I appear together always have a little bit of something I don’t like—even if I enjoy the song overall.
Like Eternal Sunshine, I wouldn’t say I liked the initial singles of Hit Me Hard and Soft. “Lunch” and “L’Amour de Ma Vie” didn’t do anything for me. But when I finally listened to the album—because I heard “Birds of a Feather” everywhere—I was struck by the vulnerability of “Skinny” and “The Greatest.” These songs spoke to me as someone who deals with body and self-love issues.
Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism, 2024
I didn’t expect to like Radical Optimism so much. I only know Dua Lipa because of her viral non-dancing. I don’t know her previous songs or albums, or at least not enough to recognize them as her music. But the album title intrigued me, so I listened to it as soon as it came out.
At that point, Dua had already released three singles from Radical Optimism: “Houdini,” “Training Season,” and “Illusion.” I heard “Houdini” several times, but not the other two. So, for the most part, when I listened to Radical Optimism for the first time, it was all fresh and undiscovered—and I was not disappointed. I don’t think I’ve heard an album like this in ages. I liked every song and repeatedly played the album for the next month or so.
My favorite song is “These Walls” because I can’t relate to it. LOL! It’s a sad song about a relationship ending. Every time I listen to it, I inevitably think of my relationship with Raf and how I can’t connect our relationship with that song. That makes me happy because over the past few years, I’ve worked on myself a lot—and part of that work was figuring out if I belonged with Raf. Hearing a good song that I like but can’t relate to because it’s about breaking up cements the fact that I choose to stay with Raf because he makes me happy, and—hopefully—I make him happy. That our walls don’t think we should break up.
Who’s Your Favorite Female Artist?
These are my new favorites, but as I’ve already mentioned, I’m a millennial and, therefore, a huge fan of Mariah Carey.
What about you? Tell me about your favorite female singer-songwriter.
Photo by DESIGNECOLOGIST on Unsplash
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