Local legend Stella Donnelly spills on her top 5 albums of all time. Keeping in mind the theme of the issue is, ahem, girl.
- Jenny Hval // Apocalypse Girl
This album is the closest thing I’ve ever heard to someone’s body and mind in song form. Her ability to create sounds that make me think ‘fuck, if ovaries had voices that’s the sound they would make,’ accompanied by lyrics like “and I grab my c**t with my hand that isn’t clean, am I loving myself now? Am I mothering myself?” To me, Apocalypse Girl is a beautiful and powerful protest against patriarchal views on how women should behave.
Fave song: Take Care of Yourself
- Patti Smith // Horses
Patti Smith ticks the same boxes as Hval does for me with poetry meeting music. When I first listened to Horses I was immediately aware of how revolutionary her stuff would have sounded back when she released it. This classic album opened a window of possibilities in my mind for how music can be made. Which then, of course, led to a tragic fortnight of absolute obsession over everything Patti Smith has ever created. I didn’t leave my house for two weeks while I read both of her books Just Kids and M-Train whilst googling pictures of her and almost booking flights to fucking Naples, or wherever she was due to tour, just to see her in the flesh. I have since calmed down and got a grip on my life but Horses will forever be a top album for me.
Fave Song: Kimberly
- Hiatus Kaiyote // Tawk Tomahawk
Nai Palms’ voice spills out some of the coolest notes to accompany the chords that she plays. This album was super visual for me and maybe it’s because I was watching a lot of anime at the time, but I couldn’t help but feel a Miyazaki-esque theme carried throughout it.
Fave Song: Tawk Tomahawk
- Divide and Dissolve // Basic
I only just heard this album last week and I played it through twice and sat there staring at the wall. This Melbourne based drone-doom duo have managed to build a wall of sound with just guitar and drums (save for a few epically haunting tracks that incorporate the clarinet).
Fave Song: Black and Indigenous
- Oosterbanger // Purge Demos
“MY LEGS AIN’T SELLING SHIT.” This line and this whole EP is delivered with such aggression and self-awareness that it shook me a little bit when I heard it. Ellen Oosterbaan, previously the front woman of local legends Catbrush, has created a sound that is rough as guts and that’s exactly how she wanted it, a bad ass guitarist with a badass voice and she is so mad that it made me mad and will probably make you mad.
Fave Song: Fuck Decorum
Catch Stella’s new EP “Thrush Metal” on Bandcamp and Spotify.
This article first appeared in print volume 88 edition 4 GIRL.