Three Indie Female Soloists to Check Out

In March 2020, several things happened in my life at once. I went through my first real heartbreak, I was sent home from college after my campus closed, and a pandemic swept through the United States. This all happened in one week. Here’s what got me through: my family, my friends (long distance, since we were all home), home cooked meals, and music. I spent most of my quarantine exploring my music taste and finding albums that I connected with. This all came in the form of Lucy Dacus’s 2018 album, Historian, which reckons with heartbreak, grief, and loss in all different forms. This album spurred me to find other indie female soloists I resonated with such as Phoebe Bridgers, Adrienne Lenker, Faye Webster, Julien Baker, Haley Henderickx, and others. 

The indie genre is a male-dominated industry, so to me it’s important that they get the representation they deserve. That’s why I compiled a list of three albums from indie female soloists that have been recently released in 2021.  

Little Oblivions - Julien Baker 

I first discovered Julien Baker from boygenius, which is an indie supergroup formed in 2018, composed of Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, and Phoebe Bridgers. Little Oblivions is her third studio album and has a more encompassing groundwork compared to her other albums. This album contains a more full-band sound rather than her previous albums. This is most noticeable with her opener, “Hardline,” which delves into her upbringing as a gay Christian woman in the deep American South and overcoming teenage substance abuse. Her lyrics are hard-hitting and raw as they explore the relapse and heartbreak that helped her compose her new album. The rock sound tunes down in “Heatwave” and emphasizes her voice with a jaunty banjo sound. This album is a raw and emotional listen which explores her trauma in depth, but one can find a piece of themselves while listening. 

I Know I’m Funny haha - Faye Webster 

Something that I really appreciate about Webster is how whimsical and musically enticing her albums are. Her fourth studio album, “I Know I’m Funny haha” has the same kind of fun whimsical and dazzling sounds her previous album, “Atlanta Millionaires Club” has. Webster is an interesting lyricist who explores good days and bad days and all the following emotions that entails it. If you’re looking for a slower, melancholy tune, combined with brighter twinkles of chimes and groovy wind instruments, then this could be the album for you. This is the type of music I imagine listening to on a walk in your hometown, the air is thick and humid because it’s mid-July, and all the days are blending together. Those same atmospheric vibes follow the same slow yet playfully quaint tune in her album. You get to experience all of Webster’s personality in her songs: playful, polite, sad, gloomy, mischievous, sarcastic and so much more thanks to her lyrics. This can be especially found in her title track when she sings, “I think your sisters are so pretty / Got drunk and they forgot they met me / I made her laugh one time at dinner / She said I'm funny and then I thanked her / But I know I'm funny haha.” 

Home Video - Lucy Dacus 

Perhaps I am a bit biased when it comes to Dacus because I can say without any doubt that her 2018 album, Historian, changed my life. This album has a completely different vibe than her recent ones as it explores what it is like to grow up in a suffocating town and come back as a changed person. It explores her childhood, upbringing, and love and loss. Her voice is haunting and melodic all of which contrasts to a heavy rock sound, slower ballads, to a more pop-heavy auto-tuned feel. We see Dacus exploring more of herself musically in this album and an exploration of instruments and tunes. We experience a 2000s vibe from a Christian small town all from the perspective of Dacus who lived and grew up in it. This album swings in a completely different direction aesthetically from Baker’s, but we still see the hard hitting lyrics come from Dacus as well. The lyrics in this album are a lot more sharper and direct than in Historian and are altogether a bolder statement than her previous albums have ever made. She explores her younger self without any judgement, but merely introspection of what her childhood gave her and took from her.