10 Of The Best - Indie & Alternative Tracks With Female Lead Vocals

It would be a lie to say that this is now a monthly playlist! With being away for 5 months in South East Asia, my pet project ’10 of the Best’ took an unfortunate backseat to sunshine, pho and avoiding catching coronavirus. If ‘10 of the Best’ were a Tamagotchi, the poor thing would have died suffocated on screen in an ever-accumulating pile of poo. However, I am back. Bigger and poorer than before and tentatively trying to bring together 10 songs around a theme once more.

As some of you may know, I have been on a quest, a quest to keep the Goose Studios community dancing with my one man repetitive wrecking ball of a feature ‘Dance-olation!’ on our Instagram. It’s a bit like if Frodo teamed up with a Saturday Night Fever era John Travolta.

‘Dance-olation!’ has served a second fantastic purpose though… It helped me find forgotten gems, tracks such as Solange ‘Losing You’ that I had totally forgot existed. Once re-found, like all good tracks, games or films, I’ve dived two footed into the forgotten world of female lead indie dance gems of the last 10 years. I mean it’s a vaguely niche rabbit hole to fall down, but it’s a rabbit hole that sees me writing this little ol’blog post!

On its own or as a harmony, females vocals are ethereal gems, floating through your headphones or a more visceral experience, coming at you like some bird of prey in attack mode at a gig. Either or, they can elevate a song to a whole new level like the harmonies in almost the entire Warpaint wonderful back catalogue or provide these ace little vocal inflictions that you might get from Men I Trust or Julia Jacklin.

So here it is – my affectionately named ‘Indie or Alternative Female Vocals that Richard likes since 2010’. Catchy eh?

Firstly, though I want to avoid all claims that this are the best vocal performances. Joyous female vocal parts are a nightmare when trying to collate 10 of the best. Ella Fitzgerald, The Supremes, Donna Summer, Girls Aloud on The Promise. It’s too hard a task trying to get the 10 best EVER. 

Instead, you have a collection of songs from artists that I haven’t stopped listening too in the last 10 years. Songs from artists that I just love seeing live. Songs that get stuck in your head. Songs for a summer’s day. Songs I couldn’t stop listening to at work on YouTube.

I really wanted to avoid picking artists that have already made appearances in 10 of the Best before, but hey ho! Sometimes bands stick in your head for a reason – they are damn good. Most of these bands I have seen live, in the case of Warpaint about 5 times. There are songs on this playlist that I hold dear on their own or from artists who I have listened to a hell of a lot. One thing is for certain though is that I think these songs would be all the worse if they didn’t have some incredible female vocals holding them together and I hope you enjoy!

Until next time, keep listening to Dance-olation, stay safe and take care of yourselves,

Rich x
Co-founder of Goose Studios

Ps. In short, it’s hard to whittle this playlist down but like all things music related, I want to know what you guys like, this is a journey of mutual discovery.

Like the Bill Clinton swag-bag story on Instagram, I want to know your favourite female vocal performances and introduce some new music to Sam and I so we can stop listening to our iPod Classics and think that it is still 2015.

So if you want to sling any music our ways, ping us a message on Instagram, Facebook or as an e-mail as we’d love to hear what female vocals make it in your ‘Top how-ever-many Indie or Alternative Tracks since 2010’.