She leads you to the river

El Perro Del Mar - Glory To The World
Third Wave - Eleanor Rigby
The Martells - Time To Say Goodbye
Françoise Hardy - Suzanne
Karen Dalton - Something On Your Mind
Trio Bulgarka - Mari Tudoro

Today's post features all tracks that I've been listening to recently; all female voices from all over the place who are all amazing.

Straight outta Gothenburg, Sweden comes El Perro Del Mar with 'Glory To The World' a beautiful song that sounds instantly familiar, like catchy pop should. It feels like the sort of tune that could be on a commercial for Volkswagen or something -- and I mean that in the best possible way. 'Glory To The World' came out this year, get into it.

I was listening to WFMU the other week and a version of 'Eleanor Rigby' came on that blew my mind. Admittedly I'm partial to cover versions of that song but this was something special. One of my favourite things about streaming WFMU through iTunes is being able to see what track is playing. It turned out to be by a group called Third Wave, five teenage Filipino sisters backed by a crack team of jazz musos. If you know of a better version of this song please get in touch because I'm about to call it. Best version ever.

I can't tell you much about The Martells except that they were a 60s British girl group, Joe Meek was involved, 'Time To Say Goodbye' is a very expensive 45rpm record thesedays, and I can't help but want it.

Françoise Hardy gives great Leonard Cohen here with her version of 'Suzanne'. Sung in French too, ooh la la.

Karen Dalton walks the line. Her voice almost breaks and, as she squeezes all the available emotion out every song she sings, so does your heart. 'Something On Your Mind' is a prime example. Sadness never sounded so good.

Lastly to Bulgaria, where we find Trio Bulgarka. Three women who come together from different parts of the country to sing folk music in a phenomenal way. 'Mari Tudoro' is just one of the vocalists but it's a haunting tune and my favourite from the album. It was apparently used on an advertisement for cider.

Baeble Music: El Perro Del Mar
Amazon: Third Wave
eBay: The Martells
YouTube: Françoise Hardy
Wikipedia: Karen Dalton
Last.fm: Trio Bulgarka