Five Awesome (Female) Pop Albums

Looking for some new music? Here’s five of my favorite pop albums, all by female artists. (and all really catchy)

	Artist Mariah Carey Album Daydream Year 1995 Favorite Songs Fantasy, Always Be My Baby, One Sweet Day Similar To Uh..Mariah Carey?

Mariah Carey – Daydream

Mariah Carey has been around for a long, long time. As a musical artist, of course. Her first album debuted in 1990 – I was eight years old – and since then spawned ridiculous numbers of hit singles (18). And while I actually own a bunch of her albums (five? six?), I can’t seem to get away from Daydream. There’s just so many great songs: Fantasy, One Sweet Day, Always Be My Baby, Forever – all chart-toppers. Even the ballads that weren’t giant hits (Melt Away, Underneath the Stars, When I Saw You, Open Arms) still manage to sound relatively timeless. If you need to pick up one Mariah Carey album, this one should be it. Or you could cheat and get her “greatest hits” #1′s album.

	Artist The Veronicas Album The Secret Life of… Year 2005 Favorite Songs When It All Falls Apart, Everything I’m Not, Heavily Broken Similar To Aly & AJ

The Veronicas – The Secret Life of..

The Veronicas are twin sisters who are highly talented singer/songwriters. They were sadly unheard of until the hit single Untouched started playing on all of the Z100/Top 40 radio stations. Untouched belongs to their second album, one that subtracted most of the pop sound and instead added 50% more attitude. And some high-tech new-age electro-dance stuff.

But The Veronicas’ first album, The Secret Life of…, is nothing short of amazing. Except for one cover (Mother Mother), the album is a collection of catchy, fun pop songs with a tiny bit of attitude. It’s solid, and one of those albums that you can just drop in and hit the Random button. In my official opinion it’s practically perfect.

	Artist Sara Bareilles Album Little Voice Year 2007 Favorite Songs Gravity, Love Song, *Everything Else* (not a name of a song) Similar To Fiona Apple

Sara Bareilles – Little Voice

Sara Bareilles almost won a Grammy. She lost, unfortunately, to a certain overplayed Coldplay song, but in the end it didn’t really matter – her single Love Song became a pop staple on radio stations across the country anyway.

Her album Little Voice, I should add, is perfect. Not practically perfect, or almost perfect, but absolutely perfect. Most albums have a bare minimum of “good” (catchy) songs that you actually want to keep listening to. Little Voice has twelve awesome songs. Out of twelve songs.

If you’ve never heard of Sara Bareilles (which is quite possible, considering only one of her songs has really hit it big so far), you’re in for a treat. I remember someone describing her music as “intelligent pop”, which is pretty accurate. It’a little like Fiona Apple, or Ben Folds without all of the nuttiness. Consider the following lyrics, from One Sweet Love:

The things I dream that I can do
I’d open up the moon for you
Just come down soon

	Artist Paramore Album Riot! Year 2008 Favorite Songs When It Rains, That's What You Get, Hallelujah Similar To The Material, VersaEmerge, Hey Monday

Paramore – Riot!

I get in this mood sometimes where I’m constantly fast-forwarding through songs in my playlist, searching for that one song that mirrors my current state of mind. I never find it, but I always stop when I hear When It Rains by Paramore. It’s just one of those songs. I love the intro, I love the drums, I love Hayley Williams’ voice. For those not familiar with her, Hayley Williams is the lead singer of a band called Paramore.

Paramore’s music is Pop Rock or Pop Punk, whatever that means. The only thing that really matters is that the group has mastered the fine art of creating catchy songs with lyrics to match.

And their album Riot! carries an interesting split of songs – about half are melodically (aka catchy) guitar-heavy, while the others are more subtle. It’s an excellent mix, and Hayley Williams ties it all together.

	Artist Plumb Album candycoatedwaterdrops Year 1999 Favorite Songs Here With Me, Lie Low, God-Shaped Hole, Stranded Similar To No idea

Plumb – candycoatedwaterdrops

To date, I’ve heard only one song by Plumb on the radio – it was Sink ‘n Swim, off one of their later albums. I don’t know if it’s because their music is technically classified as Christian rock, or for some other nefarious reason, but either way there’s a good chance that Plumb’s second album candycoatedwaterdrops flew under your radar.

So what makes candycoatedwaterdrops so great? Six songs:

Stranded: Reminds me of Michelle Branch’s Everywhere.
Here With Me: I love the buildup to the chorus and that hollow, echo-y effect in the verses.
Lie Low: One of the catchiest refrains that I’ve ever heard.
God-Shaped Hole: The whole song is just ridiculously awesome.
Worlds Collide: A Fairy Tale: Has a really catchy drum intro that sort of reminds me of Red Jumpsuit Apparatus’ Face Down. Good lyrics too.
Damaged: Haunting, melancholy, and hard to forget.

Got your own recommendations? Leave ‘em in the comments.