Who Are The Best Female Lyricists?

NME journalist, Emily Mackay started a blog questioning who were the greatest female lyricists of all time. She came to a justified decision and picked out Bjork, M.I.A, PJ Harvey, Kate Bush and Patti Smith.

I can't really disagree with her, I love every single one of them, but I have a few more I would add to the list:

Corin Tucker- Lead singer/howler of the inspirational band Sleater-Kinney, Corin generally wrote most of the lyrics and we're glad she did. Corin remained stridently political throughout her career and voiced her opinions in an intelligent and clear way.

Listen: Combat Rock


Kim Deal- The famous bassist of the legendary Pixies, did anyone see them this October if so I'm jealous, is one of my favourite lyricists. She wrote one of the band's greatest songs, Gigantic, which was previously song of the month here. Kim's lyrics tend to not follow the rules and instead wander through the dark forests and magical landscapes of her mind.

Listen: Cannonball

Poly Styrene- This teenage punk was way ahead of her time when she started her band in the midst of the punk era. Avoiding the cliches that many fell into Poly sung about environmental issues, consumerism and the loss of identity.

Listen: Identity

Enough of me going on, which girls do you love?

To read more of Mackay's blog click here.