12 Female Artists You Should Know

2013 has been a good year for women in music. From the re-emergence of teeny-bopper heartthrobs like Paramore, to the complete superstardom of Beyonce—and let's not forget the recent interest in hard-to-pinpoint nearly popstar types like Grimes, Lana Del Rey and Jessie Ware who are still riding a wave of fame from last year.

But this year, women are really taking things into their own hands, stepping outside the boundaries of genre, history, and the over-played sexualized tropes. The diverse and brilliant output of female musicians is at an all-time high, but besides already well-known sirens, there's an influx of rising talent and lesser known women offering up some amazing sounds. Here are 12 female artists that you should definitely know if you don't by now, because they'll be the next buzzed-about artists before you can say, "Grimes who?"

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2. Lauren Mann & the Fairly Odd Folk

Hometown: Calgary, Alberta

Most Recent Release: Over Land and Sea

Sounds Like: A chance gathering of musicians that ballooned into a makeshift orchestra.

Lauren Mann & the Fairly Odd Folk began as a collective of local musicians on the Calgary scene, eventually the group solidified into a group confident enough to release an album, and 2010's Stories From Home marked Lauren's first recording and tour. Now, the singer and her band have signed to Wander Records and are back with a record that feels more storied, physical and joyous than ever before. The buoyancy of this album is immediately apparent, it floats along the lines of old-world folk while straying into the current of baroque-pop. For those who appreciate the earnest and unassuming power of mandolins, whistling and light-hearted pop constructions, a foray into the work of this folk collective is required.

3. Alexandra Stewart

4. Nadine Shah

Hometown: Whitburn, England

Most Recent Release: Dreary Town EP

Sounds Like: Songs that fall somewhere between tragedy and sorcery.

The bitter undertones of Nadine Shah's work are barely leveled out by her beautifully fragile voice that seems like it might shatter into a million pieces at any moment. Shah shakes out the gloomy, ominous songs on this EP with surprising confidence, singing like a seasoned veteran of the stage and love's failures. Last year's Aching Bones EP saw Shah signed to the R&S Records imprint Apollo and continued her work with the new Dreary Town EP. The spiraling music box or carousel aura of her dark backing piano instrumentation adds to the daunting magic of her sound and there's an air of madwoman to her haunting croons. She's got all the elusiveness of a being not quite of this world and an otherness that feels at once alarming and beckoning. Also check out the chilling video for "Dreary Town" here, it adds a real life element to the tensions the song describes.

5. Roo & the Howl

Hometown: Colorado Springs, Colorado

Most Recent Release: N/A

Sounds Like: Spare melodies strong enough to convince you to turn your back on the past.

Colorado-based singer Bekah Wagner makes music under the name Roo & the Howl, a moniker composed of opposites that the first few songs from Wagner seem to support. Roo is an ancient English word for quiet, and contrasting the loud and soft ends of the spectrum works well for the singer who merges the deafening frustrations of the past with a quiet fortitude. Wagner is working on her debut album, which will be released sometime in early 2014 and just finished a stint of shows, and even opened for local Seattle indie act Ivan and Alyosha when they came through Denver.

6. Nora Jane Struthers & the Party Line

Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee

Most Recent Release: Carnival

Sounds Like: Bluegrass stories for the casual or keen listener.

While many female musicians of the current age temper their folk or country sound with a modern twist, Nora Jane Struthers & the Party Line heads in the opposite direction. Not only does her music sound straight out of a carnival from years ago, even her phrasing style brings the past to mind. On her latest, Carnival, the bluegrass element is back brighter than ever and her stance on old-world sounds stands firm. It becomes apparent over the course of the album that Struthers doubled as an English teacher, the story-telling crafted in these songs is impeccably accomplished. Don't overlook this rising Americana musician, she's stuck to the bluegrass line and speaks on the female experience with power and distinction.

7. Alice and the Glass Lake

Hometown: Madison, Wisconsin

Most Recent Release: The Evolution EP—(May 28)

Sounds Like: Aurora borealis, if it was sound instead of light.

Alice Lake is on the brink of something big, that's the overpowering sense channeled through her voice, delivery and lyrics on the first single "Luminous" off her forthcoming debut as Alice and the Glass Lake. The Evolution EP is a five-song offering that feels introspectively focused and outwardly celebratory. The experience of being outdoors is palpable in Lake's soaring voice, which is one of those that reveals something deeper in it's intensity, in its looped reflections. Emotion and landscape run through a double helix in her delivery and poetry, as layered vocal effects and booming drums create a backdrop just drastic enough to escape dramatics.

8. Molly Drake

Hometown: Warwickshire, England

Most Recent Release: Molly Drake

Sounds Like: Lullabyes and love songs from the English countryside in the 1950s.

The unearthed album from Nick Drake's mother Molly Drake was first introduced to us by We Listen For You, who did a marvelous write up of this blast from the past. This record has the feel feel of something found up in the attic—because that's literally what it is. The self-titled album from the mother of a tragic figure like Nick Drake heightens the mystery and fascination not just around him, but his upbringing. How much did his mother's instrumental and vocal style affect his? What about his songwriting? Yet, the songs exist in their own right as well, completely removed from the legacy of her son. Her darkly insightful lyrics reveal a portrait of a woman in the 1950s that is so often forgotten, there weren't many outlets for women back then, especially not mothers. To hear her grapple with existential crises years before her son suggests a shared sadness, a shared tragedy—but also a shared genius.

9. Tristen

Hometown: Chicago, Illinois

Most Recent Release: C A V E S —(July 2013)

Sounds Like: Arsenic and old lace for the synthesizer age.

Tristen Gaspadarek is a Nashville-based singer/songwriter that goes by the mononym Tristen. Originally from Chicago, the singer relocated early on to Nashville, and her next album C A V E S is due out in July. The latest in a long line of several self-released records, this is the first to be fully by a kickstarter campaign, and as played out as kickstarter may be, listening to this album is proof that the fundraising platform can still help preserve beautiful work. The marriage of synthesizers with typically simple folk rhythms and her sugary vocals created an album that evokes comparisons to Imogen Heap and Emmylou Harris within the same breath. The urgency that Tristen imbues her songs with is topped only by her perfect balance between old world sounds and cutting edge digital noise. After several years self-releasing albums, C A V E S feels like the ultimate breakthrough, especially considering Tristen will be releasing it on her very own label Pupsnake Records.

10. Meg Myers

Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee

Most Recent Release: Daughter in the Choir

Sounds Like: The darkest parts of life retold by the lightest voice.

Pigeons & Planes has been posting tracks from the  Meg Myers train from the very beginning, interviewing her and posting her initial EP Daughter in the Choir back in March of 2012. Now, the singer is signed to Atlantic Records and currently working on her first full-length album. The recently released "Heart Heart Head" (below) is as fierce as a wild animal, but Myers is clearly in complete control of the beast within. She harnesses powerful, almost violent emotions, and uses them to make simple songs sound like the most important thing in the world.

11. Caitlin Rose

Hometown: Nashville, Tennesse

Most Recent Release: The Stand-In

Sounds Like: Golden era saloon ballads with cinematic stakes.

Caitlin Rose grew up in the shadows of the Nashville music scene, so it feels almost inevitable that her voice sound effortlessly smooth and her lyrics sidle up to the well-worn topics of hasty love affairs and empty barrooms. Personal, even unflattering admissions sound like sweet nothings when Rose sings them in her fluttery, rich alto. Yet, there's something that feels brand new about her timely and timeless record—she's no Taylor Swift and she's no Dolly Parton, but both of those reference points feel poignant in regards to this release. Uncompromisingly honest and assuredly country, Rose makes it feel like country music isn't a sound but a frame of mind... after all, isn't it?

12. Daughter

Hometown: London, England

Most Recent Release: If You Leave

Sounds Like: The world from the perspective of a lost doll.

Elena Tonra, Igor Haefeli and Remi Aguilella make up the trio known as Daughter, who recently signed to indie label superpowers 4AD and Glassnote Records. But Daughter has never needed heroism to gain a rather cult-like following since their inception just over three years ago. Elena's voice is the strongest element in the music, though the instrumentation is superb too, it's her vivid narration that lends weight to the electronic-acoustic ballads. Mournful examinations of life's weaker points and plaintive hopes for better dip in and out of focus on Daughter's first two EPs, His Young Heart and The Wild Youth, but there's a backbone to the latest release that wasn't there before.

13. Laura Mvula

Hometown: Birmingham, England

Most Recent Release: Sing to the Moon

Sounds Like: A medieval, embroidered tapestry come to life.

Britain has been on fire lately—it seems like so much of the new music coming out of the UK is beautifully crafted, wildly ambitious music, and Laura Mvula is no different. As a composer, Mvula handles all her own arrangements, as well as singing and writing the songs. The layers in these songs are impossible to discern—just when it seems like the song is drawing to a close, Mvula will spin it off in a totally unexpected direction. Careening between the dewy, love-struck moments of ballads and gut-wrenching rejection realizations, the singer takes the drama of showtunes and updates them into 21st-century reflections on life's minutia and majesty.

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