It’s July once more and that means we are buzzing with excitement here at LOUD WOMEN HQ. The annual LOUD WOMEN Fest and LOUD WOMEN Hercury Award are on the way, and contrary to lesser music awards, the Hercury is never retrograde. We say this every year because it’s true each time: the albums on the following shortlist represent just one part of an ongoing decade-long renaissance of DIY music led by women/nb musicians, right under the noses of the music industry.
Whether or not artists choose to engage with that industry, the Hercury panel are listening for success on your own artistic terms. If distribution to you is self-release on a Bandcamp page or merch table, we’re here for it. Nominations are democratically chosen with these perennial criteria: albums by British Isles-based women/non-binary-led bands and solo artists released between July 2022 and July 2023.
Previous winners of the Hercury Prize: Menstrual Cramps (2017), ILL (2018), Dream Nails (2019), Nova Twins (2020), Lilith Ai (2021) and Petrol Girls (2022).
Let’s have a look at this year’s nominations:
ARXX – Ride Or Die (Mar 2023)
Debut LP and exceedingly tuneful Loud Women Album Of The Month from this Brighton duo and “one of the most important albums you’ll hear or have the opportunity to buy this year” for our reviewer. “Those who are used to ARXX’s onstage raw, edgy, unbridled power might be taken aback slightly by the bigger and frequently warmer sound that studio production has brought” but the record “really benefit(s) from a vast wall of sound.. and the production never overwhelms the fantastic songs and consummate performances.”
A Void – Disassociation (Sep 2022)
Another LW Album of the Month and the second brilliant long-player from London-based post-grungers and mischievous-French-novel-namesakes A Void. Features former LW Track of the Day ‘Newspapers’, as well as the singles ‘5102’ and ‘Stepping On Snails’, which along with ‘Sick As A Dog’ and ‘Sad Events Reoccur’ all come with must-watch promo videos. Live shows are always at least slightly likely to collapse into a heap of noise, so newcomers to the group’s studio recordings might be pleasantly surprised at just how tuneful this talented trio can be when the mood takes them. There’s a lot happening on the surface with this band but, crucially, just as much going on underneath.
Big Joanie – Back Home (Nov 2022)
First Timers festival’s greatest success story, Big Joanie have progressed from home-recorded bandcamp demos to critical and commercial breakthrough, and can now be found touring the world with expanded line-ups featuring musicians from fellow POC bands like Screaming Toenail and Whitelands. Second album ‘Back Home’ builds on the strengths of their debut but both sound and vision are bigger, broader, more confident. Features the gorgeous ‘In My Arms’, the irresistible groove of ‘Happier Still’, the moving ‘Your Words’, the intriguing ‘Insecure’ and the revelatory ‘Sainted’, with the RnB and electro elements of the last two highlighting multiple possible directions forwards.
Gemma Cullingford – Tongue Tied (Sep 2022)
Just a year on from her ‘Let Me Speak’ debut, Norwich Grrrlcore Legend
Gemma Cullingford returns with an excellent second album, invoking the hauntological spirit of electro-pop like a one-woman Chromatics on slower tracks like ‘Holding Dreams’ and ‘New Day’, tapping into an evocative groove on songs like ‘Red Room’ and ‘No Fail’, and moving to the dancefloor for ‘Chronicle of Sound’ and the funky ‘Bass Face’ (as featured on our Loud Women, Vol 5 compilation.)
Deux Furieuses – Songs From Planet Earth (Nov 2022)
Third album of skilful alternative rock from the Furieuses and a reminder once again of what strengths the band has in Ros’s stunning voice, Vas’ way with a martial, syncopated drumbeat and their mutual affinity for catchy-as-hell vocal/musical hooks. Whether on propulsive bangers like ‘Be Water’, ‘All We Need Is Sanctuary’, ‘Our Tribe’ and ‘Bring Down The Government’, or the more measured, thoughtfully powerful songs in between, it’s easy to forget that only two people are making all this vital music.
Dream Wife – Social Lubrication (Jun 2023)
Another LW Album Of The Month and a collection of “perfectly blend[ed] fun art rock that doesn’t hold back on analysing the political landscape of today”. On their third LP, Dream Wife “fights the patriarchy with clever lyrics and dance anthems.” Ten witty dissections of modern love/life including the title track single as well as ‘Hot (Don’t Date A Musician)’ and ‘Who Do You Wanna Be’, which has the particularly irresistible couplet: “Exhausted by the pressure to feel somewhat empowered, it’s only 8AM and I haven’t even showered”. Overall, we’re getting top notes of Elastica, CSS and Romeo Void and those are good things round our way.
The Franklys – Dogma (Feb 2023)
Another LW Album Of The Month and possible swansong for the Franklys, a band you could’ve easily imagined headlining stadiums in a more just universe. Opening single ‘Before You Hit The Ground’ is for our reviewer “a proper pop song dressed up in a swirling mass of metallic riffs and VERY LOUD drum punishment” while closing track ‘Did It End’ is “a heavy metal ballad that brings a stunning musical enterprise to an end in a reflective manner. ” In between, the pace barely lets up with the raging ‘Mess’ and ‘Dogma’ on one side and ‘Your Imagination’, ‘Nobody Else’ and ‘Terroriser’ on the other.
Jemma Freeman & The Cosmic Something – Miffed (Nov 2022)
The second solo album from Jemma Freeman’s Cosmic Something project is just as compelling and urgent as their debut, but more cohesive, more sharply focused. Jemma compresses a huge quantity of guitar and pours an ocean of soul into possibly the heaviest record on our shortlist, showing their whole vocal, technical and emotional range on the full-on attack of ‘Easy Peeler’, progressive epics like ‘Lump’ and ‘Sicilian Mousse’, and emotive opening and closing pieces ‘Big Bread’ and ‘Take Me’. An exhausting listen in some ways, all of them good.
Ghost Car – Truly Trash (Oct 2022)
A vital, worth-the-wait debut from this London-based ‘international punk quartet’. Coming to this album without preconceptions we were happily blown away by its garage-y effervescence; a delicious melting pot of noise evoking everyone from Mambo Taxi to Liliput, the B52s to ILL. Highlights include ‘Embleton Road’ (seemingly narrating paranormal activity in Lewisham), ‘Clown Town’ (apparently not about the soft play centre in Friern Barnet) and a particularly intense sequence of tracks in ‘Selfish, Spoiled’-‘Mechanical Soul’-‘Basta’, contrasting nicely with songs like ‘Sex’ that show how easily they could develop towards a more commercial sound if they chose. When the overall results are this good though, we can’t help hoping they stay in the garage for a while longer.
PJ Harvey – I Inside The Old Year Dying (Jul 2023)
Seven years since her last record, and uniquely incapable of making a bad one, PJ Harvey returns with her tenth album (not even counting collabs or demo collections), back on an indie label, and demonstrating once again her place in a class of her own for constancy and singularity. In a way these atmospheric pieces are the opposite of her DIY punk-ish origins, from another view the way that Polly follows her own star is as punk as it gets. Features a lower body count than her last LP, and a surprising number of Elvis references, for people who like that sort of thing.
Scrounge – Sugar, Daddy (Sep 2022)
A short and (bitter)sweet album from this London duo, with the storming opener, ‘This Summer’s Been Lethal’, followed by songs both frantic and reflective, including tracks from their Ideal EP of a few years ago. Their sound might have its origins in US post-hardcore but you can hear an 80s post-punk sensibility in some of the melodies and there’s a coiled British claustrophobia oozing through its lyrical veins. That it’s all over in under 25 minutes means you’ll be wanting to play it twice in a row each time; then the songs get their claws in. A cunning move, if you think about it.
Brix Smith – Valley Of The Dolls (Mar 2023)
Debut solo album proper from Brix Smith, ex of the Extricated, the Adult Net and the Fall, and frankly a ridiculous record in the Nobody Makes Music Like This Anymore genre (but you could also go with ‘power-pop’). Aesthetically perhaps a long way from UK DIY except that this is literally a self-release, albeit with songs more about California than Clapton. With more hooks than a curtain factory and choruses so big they have other choruses orbiting around them, it’s hard to highlight particular songs, but here goes: the soaring ‘Aphrodite’, the Hole-esque ‘California Smile’, the epic ‘Black Butterfly’, ‘Say I’m Ur No. 1’ featuring your actual Susanna Hoffs on bvs, and ‘Valley Girl’ which has more of the same from Siobhan Fahey out of motherflipping Bananarama.
The winner of the 2023 Hercury Prize will be announced in September. In the meantime, here's a playlist of all the nominees ...
The post The Hercury Award 2023 Shortlist first appeared on LOUD WOMEN.
